Intel Corporation
ALTERNATE PROTOCOL NEGOTIATION IN A HIGH PERFORMANCE INTERCONNECT

Abstract:

A port of a computing device is to communicate with another device over a link, the port including physical layer logic of a first protocol, link layer logic of each of a plurality of different protocols, and protocol negotiation logic to determine which of the plurality of different protocols to apply on the link. The protocol negotiation logic is to send and receive ordered sets in a configuration state of a link training state machine of the first protocol, where the ordered sets include an identifier of a particular one of the plurality of different protocols. The protocol negotiation logic is to determine from the ordered sets that a link layer of the particular protocol is to be applied on the link.