US 11,907,155 B2
Bus system connecting slave devices with single-wire data access communication
Kang-Fu Chiu, Hsinchu (TW); Chih-Hung Huang, New Taipei (TW); and Hao-Yang Chang, Houlong Township, Miaoli County (TW)
Assigned to NUVOTON TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION, Hsinchu Science Park (TW)
Filed by Nuvoton Technology Corporation, Hsinchu (TW)
Filed on Jan. 12, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/574,090.
Claims priority of application No. 110113186 (TW), filed on Apr. 13, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2022/0327086 A1, Oct. 13, 2022
Int. Cl. G06F 13/42 (2006.01); G06F 13/38 (2006.01); G06F 13/40 (2006.01)
CPC G06F 13/4282 (2013.01) [G06F 2213/0002 (2013.01)] 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A bus system, comprising:
a master device;
an enhanced serial peripheral interface (eSPI) bus; and
a plurality of slave devices electrically connected to the master device via the eSPI bus,
wherein each of the plurality of slave devices has an alert handshake pin, and the alert handshake pins of the plurality of slave devices are electrically connected together via an alert handshake control line,
wherein when the alert handshake control line is at a first voltage level and a first slave device of the slave devices wants to communicate with the master device, the first slave device is configured to control the alert handshake control line to a second voltage level via the alert handshake pin, so as to control the plurality of slave devices to enter a synchronization stage,
wherein in a first phase of a plurality of phases of each of assignment periods in an assignment stage after the synchronization stage, the first slave device is configured to control the alert handshake control line to the second voltage level via the alert handshake pin, and in the phases of each of the assignment periods except for the first phase, the first slave device is configured to control the alert handshake control line to communicate with the plurality of slave devices other than the first slave device via the alert handshake pin, so as to transmit commands or data to other slave devices via the alert handshake control line,
wherein the first phase corresponds to the first slave device;
wherein in the phases of a first assignment period of the assignment stage except for the first phase, the first slave device is configured to control the alert handshake control line to transmit a target identification to the plurality of slave devices other than the first slave device via the alert handshake pin, so as to communicate with a second slave device of the plurality of slave devices corresponding to the target identification.