Apple inc. (20240311319). Scalable Interrupts simplified abstract

Scalable Interrupts

Organization Name

apple inc.

Inventor(s)

Jeffrey E. Gonion of Campbell CA (US)

Charles E. Tucker of Campbell CA (US)

Tal Kuzi of Tel Aviv (IL)

Richard F. Russo of San Jose CA (US)

Mridul Agarwal of Sunnyvale CA (US)

Christopher M. Tsay of Austin TX (US)

Gideon N. Levinsky of Cedar Park TX (US)

Shih-Chieh Wen of San Jose CA (US)

Lior Zimet of Kerem Maharal (IL)

Scalable Interrupts - A simplified explanation of the abstract

This abstract first appeared for US patent application 20240311319 titled 'Scalable Interrupts

Simplified Explanation: The patent application describes an interrupt delivery mechanism for a system that includes an interrupt controller and multiple cluster interrupt controllers connected to different groups of processors. The interrupt controller sends interrupt requests to the cluster interrupt controllers, which then acknowledge or do not acknowledge the interrupt based on delivering it to the processors they are connected to. If the interrupt is not acknowledged, a hard iteration may be performed to power on processors that are currently off.

• **Key Features and Innovation:**

   - Serial transmission of interrupt requests to cluster interrupt controllers
   - Soft iteration to deliver interrupts to powered-on processors
   - Hard iteration to power on processors that are off

• **Potential Applications:**

   - Data centers
   - Server systems
   - High-performance computing

• **Problems Solved:**

   - Efficient interrupt delivery in a system with multiple processors
   - Minimizing power consumption by selectively powering on processors

• **Benefits:**

   - Improved system performance
   - Energy efficiency
   - Enhanced reliability of interrupt delivery

• **Commercial Applications:**

   - Optimizing server performance
   - Enhancing data center efficiency
   - Improving overall system reliability

• **Prior Art:**

   Prior art related to interrupt delivery mechanisms in multi-processor systems can be found in research papers, patents, and technical documentation in the field of computer architecture and system design.

• **Frequently Updated Research:**

   Ongoing research in interrupt handling mechanisms, power management in multi-processor systems, and system reliability can provide further insights into the development and optimization of interrupt delivery mechanisms.

Questions about Interrupt Delivery Mechanism:

1. *How does the interrupt controller determine which cluster interrupt controller to send the interrupt request to?*

  - The interrupt controller sends the interrupt request to all cluster interrupt controllers, which then decide whether to acknowledge or not based on the processors they are connected to.

2. *What are the potential challenges in implementing a hard iteration to power on processors that are currently off?*

  - One potential challenge could be the coordination and synchronization of powering on multiple processors simultaneously to efficiently handle interrupts.

Original Abstract Submitted

an interrupt delivery mechanism for a system includes and interrupt controller and a plurality of cluster interrupt controllers coupled to respective pluralities of processors in an embodiment. the interrupt controller may serially transmit an interrupt request to respective cluster interrupt controllers, which may acknowledge (ack) or non-acknowledge (nack) the interrupt based on attempting to deliver the interrupt to processors to which the cluster interrupt controller is coupled. in a soft iteration, the cluster interrupt controller may attempt to deliver the interrupt to processors that are powered on, without attempting to power on processors that are powered off. if the soft iteration does not result in an ack response from one of the plurality of cluster interrupt controllers, a hard iteration may be performed in which the powered-off processors may be powered on.