
IDT Link Operation
PES48T12G2 User Manual
6 - 9
April 5, 2013
Notes
–
When software sets the Link Retrain (LRET) bit in the PCIELCTL register and the PES48T12G2
port has recorded support for the higher speed by its link partner.
1
When operating at 5.0 GT/s, a PES48T12G2 port initiates a link speed downgrade in the following
cases:
–
When the PHY layer cannot achieve reliable operation at the higher speed. In this case, the
switch’s port continues to support the higher speed in the training-sets it transmits during link
training.
–
When software sets the target link speed to 2.5 GT/s and sets the LRET bit in the PCIELCTL
register. In this case, the switch’s port removes support for the higher speed in the training-sets it
transmits during link training.
Additionally, the PES48T12G2 ports always respond to link partner requests to change speed. In this
case, the speed change is only successful when both components in the link advertise support the target
speed. When a link speed upgrade operation fails, the PHY LTSSM reverts back to the speed before the
upgrade (i.e., 2.5 GT/s) and does not autonomously initiate a subsequent link speed upgrade. In this case,
the PHY continues to support Gen1 and Gen2 data rates and therefore responds to link partner requests for
link speed upgrade, or to link speed upgrades triggered by software setting the LRET bit in the port’s
PCIELCTL register.
The PES48T12G2 ports do not have a mechanism to autonomously regulate link speed. As a result, the
Hardware Autonomous Speed Disable (HASD) bit in the PCIELCTL2 register has no effect and is hardwired
to 0x0. Additionally, PES48T12G2 ports never set the ‘Autonomous Change’ bit in the training sets
exchanged with the link partner during link training
2
. Still, a link partner connected to a PES48T12G2 down-
stream port may autonomously change link speed. When this occurs, the PES48T12G2 downstream port
sets the Link Autonomous Bandwidth Status (LABWSTS) bit in the PCIELSTS register.
A system designer may limit the maximum speed at which each port operates by changing the target
link speed via software or EEPROM and forcing link retraining. Refer to section Link Retraining on page 6-
10 for further details.
Software Management of Link Speed
Software can interact with the link control and status registers of downstream ports to set the link speed,
as well as receive notification of link speed changes. This gives software the capability to choose the
desired link speed based on system specific criteria. For example, depending on the traffic load expected
on a link, software can choose to downgrade link speed to 2.5 GT/s in order to reduce power on a low-traffic
link, and later upgrade the link to 5.0 GT/s when the bandwidth is required. Software may also choose to
change the link speed due to link reliability reasons (i.e., a link that has reliability problems at 5.0 GT/s may
be downgraded to 2.5 GT/s).
As mentioned above, the Target Link Speed (TLS) field of the port’s Link Control 2 Register
(PCIELCTL2) sets the preferred link speed. By default, the Target Link Speed of each PES48T12G2 port is
set to 5.0 GT/s. During normal operation, the link speed of a downstream port may be modified by setting
the TLS field of the port’s PCIELCTL2 register to the desired speed and initiating link retraining by writing a
one to the Link Retrain (LRET) bit in the Link Control (PCIELCTL) register.
–
The port will only initiate a change to a higher speed if the link partner advertised support for the
higher speed in its latest entry to the Configuration.Complete or Recovery.RcvrCfg states.
–
If a speed change is initiated to a speed not supported by the link partner, then the port will remain
at the current speed by transitioning through the Recovery state without the “Speed_Change” bit
set.
1.
The speed advertisement of the link partner is noted by PES48T12G2 in the latest LTSSM entry to the Configu-
ration.Complete or Recovery.RcvrCfg sub-states.
2.
Note that the ‘Autonomous Change’ bit is located in bit 6 of the fourth symbol in the training sets. This bit has
multiple meanings depending on the LTSSM state in which it is issued. PES48T12G2 never sets this bit in LTSSM
states in which this bit carries the ‘autonomous change’ meaning.
Summary of Contents for 89HPES48T12G2
Page 14: ...IDT Table of Contents PES48T12G2 User Manual vi April 5 2013 Notes...
Page 22: ...IDT Register List PES48T12G2 User Manual xiv April 5 2013 Notes...
Page 38: ...IDT PES48T12G2 Device Overview PES48T12G2 User Manual 1 16 April 5 2013 Notes...
Page 64: ...IDT Reset and Initialization PES48T12G2 User Manual 5 8 April 5 2013 Notes...
Page 82: ...IDT Link Operation PES48T12G2 User Manual 6 18 April 5 2013 Notes...
Page 98: ...IDT SerDes PES48T12G2 User Manual 7 16 April 5 2013 Notes...
Page 118: ...IDT Theory of Operation PES48T12G2 User Manual 8 20 April 5 2013 Notes...
Page 152: ...IDT SMBus Interfaces PES48T12G2 User Manual 12 20 April 5 2013 Notes...
Page 158: ...IDT Multicast PES48T12G2 User Manual 13 6 April 5 2013 Notes...