SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR REDUCING ECC OVERHEAD AND MEMORY ACCESS BANDWIDTH

Abstract

A system, and corresponding method, is described for updating or calculating ECC where the transaction volume is significantly reduced from a read-modify-write to a write, which is more efficient and reduces demand on the data access bandwidth. The invention can be implemented in any chip, system, method, or HDL code that perform protection schemes and require ECC calculation, of any kind. Embodiments of the invention enable IPs that use different protections schemes to reduce power consumption and reduce bandwidth access to more efficiently communicate or exchange information.

Claims

1. A system comprising a memory management module; memory in communication with the memory management module; a transaction table for tracking control information including at least a plurality of ways and an ECC total for the plurality of ways within a data stream, wherein each way has an ECC value; and an ECC calculation module for determine a new ECC total when at least one way of the plurality of ways in the data stream is replaced with a new way, the ECC calculation module calculates a new ECC value using an ECC mask for the at least one way that was changed and replaces the ECC value for the corresponding at least one way that was changed with the new ECC value to determine the new ECC total, thereby reducing memory access bandwidth needed to generate the new ECC.

2. The system of claim 2 further comprising: a first IP, which is in communication with the memory, using a first protection scheme; a second IP, which is in communication with the memory, using a second protection scheme; and an encoder in communication with the first IP and the second IP, the encoder receives redundant information according to the first protection scheme and encodes redundant information according to the second protection scheme, wherein the first protection scheme and the second protection scheme are different.

3. The system of claim 2 further comprising an interconnect in communication with the first IP and the second IP, the interconnect using a protection scheme that is different from at least one of the first protection scheme and the second protection scheme.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the interconnect includes a unit that modifies packets.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the unit that modifies packets is a serialization adapter.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the output of the serialization adapter is narrower than the input to the serialization adapter.

7. The system of claim 2 further comprising a packet-based interconnect in communication with the first IP and the second IP, the packet-based interconnect includes at least one unit comprising: an input for receiving a plurality of first packets; and an output for sending a plurality of second packets, wherein the at least one unit: checks the input according to the first protection scheme; changes format of at least one packet selected from the plurality of first packets; and encodes the output according to the second protection scheme.

8. At least one non-transient computer readable medium storing hardware description language code for a module, the module includes: a receiving interface for receiving: data having a plurality of WAYs; and redundant information, which includes an ECC for the plurality of WAYs, according to a first protection scheme; a transaction table that stores the plurality of WAYs and the ECC for the plurality of WAYs; and a sending interface for sending: data having the plurality of WAYs; and redundant information, which includes the ECC for the plurality of WAYs, according to a second protection scheme, wherein when the module executes the hardware description language code, then the module: updates at least one WAY selected from the plurality of WAYs; calculates, using an ECC mask, a new ECC based on the updated WAY selected from the plurality of WAYs and the remaining plurality of WAYs; and writes the new ECC to the transaction table, thereby reducing memory access bandwidth needed to generate the new ECC by performing a write function.

9. The at least one non-transient computer readable medium of claim 8 wherein a designer writes hardware description language code.

10. The at least one non-transient computer readable medium of claim 8 further comprising hardware description language code to convert redundant information according with the first protection scheme to redundant information according with the second protection scheme.

11. The at least one non-transient computer readable medium of claim 8 further comprising hardware description language code to encapsulate redundant information according with the first protection scheme.

12. The at least one non-transient computer readable medium of claim 8 further comprising hardware description language code to check the data and redundant information for errors according with the first protection scheme.

13. The at least one non-transient computer readable medium of claim 12 further comprising hardware description language code to assert an output signal if an error is detected.

14. The at least one non-transient computer readable medium of claim 12 further comprising hardware description language code to count errors.

15. The at least one non-transient computer readable medium of claim 12 further comprising hardware description language code to count correctable errors and hardware description language code to count uncorrectable errors.

16. The at least one non-transient computer readable medium of claim 12 further comprising hardware description language code to generate redundant information according to the second protection scheme.

17. The at least one non-transient computer readable medium of claim 8 wherein one of the first protection scheme and the second protection scheme is SECDED ECC and the other of the first protection scheme and the second protection scheme is SEC ECC.

18. The at least one non-transient computer readable medium of claim 8 wherein one of the first protection scheme and the second protection scheme is a first type of ECC and the other of the first protection scheme and the second protection scheme is a second type of ECC.

19. The at least one non-transient computer readable medium of claim 8 wherein at least one of the first protection scheme and the second protection scheme is a SECDED ECC.

20. A method of reducing ECC overhead and memory access bandwidth, the method comprising: detecting a pending transaction; creating a transaction table that includes a plurality of WAYs and ECC for the plurality of WAYs; updating at least one WAY selected from the plurality of WAYs; calculating, using an ECC mask, a new ECC based on the updated WAY selected from the plurality of WAYs and the other plurality of WAYs; and writing the new ECC to the transaction table, thereby reducing memory access bandwidth needed to generate the new ECC by performing a write function.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0015] FIG. 1A is a table of the number of bits of redundant information needed for SEC ECC and for SECDED ECC for ranges of data bits.

[0016] FIG. 1B shows a data strings with n-WAYs and n-ECCs.

[0017] FIG. 1C shows a data strings and one corresponding ECC.sub.TOTAL for the data string.

[0018] FIG. 1D shows a data string masks with an ECC for WAY0, WAY1, WAY2, and WAY3.

[0019] FIG. 2A is a flow chart for the process of determine an ECC using a write operation.

[0020] FIG. 2B shows a master and a slave IP core, each with different protection schemes.

[0021] FIG. 3A shows a system in accordance with the various aspects of the invention.

[0022] FIG. 3B shows two IP cores coupled through an encoder.

[0023] FIG. 3C shows an encoder with a receiving interface and a sending interface.

[0024] FIG. 4A shows a non-transient computer-readable medium.

[0025] FIG. 4B shows source code for a placeholder for an encoder.

[0026] FIG. 5A shows a non-transient computer-readable medium.

[0027] FIG. 5B shows source code for a placeholder for a checker.

[0028] FIG. 6 shows IPs and a NoC within an SoC, the NoC performing encoding, packetizing, transport, depacketizing, and checking.

[0029] FIG. 7 shows a NoC that performs packetizing, encoding, transport, checking, further transport, checking, and depacketizing.

[0030] FIG. 8 shows units of a NoC that perform packetizing, encoding, transport, checking, modification, encoding, further transport, checking, and depacketizing.

[0031] FIG. 9 shows a checker/encoder that receives per-byte parity and sends per-word SECDED ECC.

[0032] FIG. 10 shows a checker/encoder that receives per-word SEC ECC and sends per-word SECDED ECC.

[0033] FIG. 11 shows a checker/encoder that receives per-word SECDED ECC and control information, and sends per-byte SECDED ECC, control word parity, and counts of detected and corrected errors.

[0034] FIG. 12 shows an encoder that receives per-nibble parity and encapsulates it as per-byte information.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0035] The invention is described in accordance with the aspects and embodiments in the following description with reference to the FIGs., in which like numbers represent the same or similar elements. Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” or similar language means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described regarding the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the invention. Thus, appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment,” “in an embodiment,” “in certain embodiments,” and similar language throughout this specification may, but do not necessarily, all refer to the same embodiment. It is noted that, as used in this description, the singular forms “a,” “an” and “the” include plural referents, unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.

[0036] The described features, structures, or characteristics of the invention may be combined in any suitable manner in accordance with the aspects and one or more embodiments of the invention. In the following description, numerous specific details are recited to provide an understanding of various embodiments of the invention. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, however, that the invention may be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, components, materials, and so forth. In other instances, well-known structures, materials, or operations are not shown or described in detail to avoid obscuring the aspects of the invention.

[0037] All publications and patents cited in this specification are herein incorporated by reference as if each individual publication or patent were specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference and are incorporated herein by reference to disclose and describe the methods and/or system in connection with which the publications are cited. The citation of any publication is for its disclosure prior to the filing date and should not be construed as an admission that the invention is not entitled to antedate such publication by virtue of prior invention. Further, the dates of publication provided may be different from the actual publication dates, which may need to be independently confirmed.

[0038] FIG. 1A shows a table of the number of bits of redundant information needed to provide SEC ECC and SECDED ECC for ranges of numbers of data bits. Referring now to FIG. 1B, a tracking or index table is shown that stores data stored in the way, way information, and current ECC overhead bits. The configuration for organizing shows that each way has its own ECC. This configuration allows for updating or writing a specific way in this structure by recalculate ECC on the specific way and update the ECC by writing that specific way only. Thus, any index table or memory update for the specific way is a write operation, such that updating WAY2, the system only needs to write WAY2.

[0039] Referring now to FIG. 1C, shows another tracking or index table that organizes the data string. In accordance with some aspects of the invention, all the ways are put together and a common ECC is calculated on all the ways. The advantage of having this is more space efficient. However, doing an update on a specific way in this structure requires a read, modify, write operation in order to recalculate the ECC on all ways and determine the common ECC. This requires more bandwidth while doing an update. Thus, instead of performing just a write operation, there is a read-modify-write operation. For each data, there is a respective ECC. In accordance with various aspects of the invention, an ECC.sub.TOTAL is calculated for WAY0 through WAY3. Thus, when any one way is changed or updated, then the ECC for that WAY can be calculated and used to update the ECC.sub.TOTAL.

[0040] In accordance with some aspects of the invention, the common ECC can be determined with a write operation. Calculating the ECC is an operation that is associative and commutative. Referring to FIG. 1D, mask is shown for each WAY in an index or tracking table n-WAYs. The ECC for each way can be calculated and stored in a mask index. Whenever a WAY needs to be updated or goes pending for a given index entry in the transaction or index table, the old WAY information is stored in the index or transaction table and the ECC information is associated with the index entry is also stored to generate a mask. Thus, the overall ECC is decomposed and only one WAY is considered at time by setting or assuming all other ways are 0, which generates the mask for the specific WAY. Thus, the final ECC will be ECC_WAY0 XOR ECC_WAY1 XOR ECC_WAY2 XOR ECC_WAY(n−1), which is the same as the total or collective ECC (WAY0 . . . WAY(n−1)).

[0041] In accordance with some aspects of the invention, when WAY2 is pending and needs to be updated with a new WAY, such as WAY2A, then the overall ECC can be calculated using the masks for the respective WAY, as follows:

{ECC.sub.WAYn.sub._.sub.OLD.sub._.sub.DATA} XOR {ECC.sub.OLD.sub._.sub.TOTAL} XOR {ECC.sub.WAYn.sub._.sub.NEW.sub._.sub.DATA}=ECC.sub.NEW.sub._.sub.TOTAL

[0042] using the data strings or masks shown in FIG. 1D:

ECC_WAY0 XOR ECC_WAY1 XOR ECC_WAY2 XOR . . .

ECC_WAY(n−1) XOR ECC_WAY2 XOR ECC_WAY2A

[0043] In the above equation, two of the terms are the same and due to the XOR property, will cancel out. Thus, the ECC can be calculated and becomes the new Value of the new ECC computation which includes the new data string WAY2A, and is equal to the following equation:

ECC_WAY0 XOR ECC_WAY1 XOR ECC_WAY2A XOR . . . ECC_WAY(n−1)

[0044] Thus, instead of doing a read-modify-write for updating an index and the ECC, the system will just update WAY2 data with the new WAY2A data and calculate the new ECC using just a write. In accordance with some embodiments of the present invention, and ECC.sub.TOTAL is calculated for A, B, C, and D.

[0045] Referring now to FIG. 2A, the process of determining a new ECC when a transaction is pending being at step 200. At step 210 the system determines if there is a transaction pending. If not, the process remains at step 210 and the system continues to monitor for a pending transaction. If there is a transaction pending, then the process continues to step 212. At step 212, the system creates a transaction table or index that includes at least the WAY, the WAY information, and the current ECC, which is also the old ECC. The process then continues to step 214. At step 214 the system determines if the pending transaction resulted in a WAY that is updated or a new WAY in the index or transaction table. If not, then the process returns to step 210. If there is a WAY that is updated or a new WAY, then the process continues to step 216. At step 216, the system writes or commits the new WAY and recalculates the ECC based on the new WAY and the unchanged or remaining or old WAYs. The process determines the new ECC using the following equation, as noted above and reproduced here:

ECC_WAY0 XOR ECC_WAY1 XOR ECC_WAY2A XOR . . . ECC_WAY(n−1)

which is derived from performing the following:

ECC_WAY0 XOR ECC_WAY1 XOR ECC_WAY2 XOR . . .

ECC_WAY(n−1) XOR ECC_WAY2A XOR ECC_WAY2

[0046] Many SoCs include IPs that require ECC overhead and the efficiency of performing write only operations to update the ECC significantly reduces ECC overhead and bandwidth required to read from memory. According to the aspects of the invention, it is possible to reduce index or transaction table or directory size from an ECC overhead from 20% of the area and bandwidth needed down to ECC overheads around 5%. This results in 15% reduction in overall coherent system area. Lower RAM (Static or Dynamic) area results in lower power consumption and heat. Also, lower memory area results in lower bandwidth demands and higher efficiency or the SoC and the IPs, the have interfaces for sending and receiving data.

[0047] As shown in FIG. 2B, each interface is either a master type or a slave type, each of which is designed to be coupled to the other. Interfaces include various signals, as prescribed by protocols, and data is normally one of the signals. Other signals, which are involved in controlling the exchange of data between masters and slaves, are omitted from interfaces depicted in the figures of this patent.

[0048] Each data signal has an inherent number of bits, also known as the width or the size of the signal. Bits of signals are conventionally indexed starting at zero. Therefore, a 32-bit signal has bits 0 to 31, which are notated, as in FIG. 2B, [31:0]. Data protection is part of some interface protocols. Some protocols encode the redundant information within the data signal, but many protocols transfer redundant information as separate signals. In FIG. 2B, IP A has a 32-bit data bus and a 4-bit parity protection scheme whereas IP B has a 32-bit data bus and a 7-bit ECC protection scheme. Naturally, the interface protocols of IP A and IP B are incompatible and so the master and slave interfaces cannot be directly connected.

[0049] FIG. 3A shows a system 350 that includes a memory 352 communicating with or having a transaction table or an index 354. The memory 352 is in communication with a memory management module 356. The transaction table 354 stores information about the transactions and index information. The system 352 also includes an ECC calculation module 358 that is capable of calculating a new ECC, in accordance with the various aspects of the invention, using a new or updated WAY. The ECC calculation module 358 can to do a write to any one of the memory 352, the transaction table 354, and the memory management module 356.

[0050] FIG. 3B shows an embodiment of the invention in which IP A and IP B are coupled through an encoder 300. IP A sends, and encoder 300 receives, data and 7-bit ECC through interface 302. The encoder 300 calculates a 4-bit party signal. Furthermore, encoder 300 sends, and IP B receives, data and 4-bit party through interface 304.

[0051] FIG. 3C shows encoder 300, which includes a receiving interface and a sending interface. The receiving interface includes a 32-bit data signal and a 4-bit parity signal. The sending interface includes a 32-bit data signal and a 7-bit ECC signal. The sending interface sends the same data values as received on the receiving interface. Different embodiments of the invention have different internal design of the encoder 300 that may use different parity encoding functions, may perform an ECC checking function, will have varying amounts of delay, and have varying other attributes of protection scheme encoding.

[0052] FIG. 4A depicts a negative-and (NAND) flash memory chip 400. This is a type of non-transient computer readable medium on which source code is stored according to some embodiments of the invention. Some other embodiments use other types of computer readable media such as hard disk drives, compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), and punch cards.

[0053] FIG. 4B depicts a source code file 410 that is in accordance with some aspects of the invention. It is a module, written in the SystemVerilog HDL language. It includes inputs of a receiving interface with a 32-bit data signal and a 4-bit parity signal and it includes outputs of a sending interface with a 32-bit data signal and a 7-bit ECC signal. The aspects of the invention as embodied in this is particular embodiment of the invention is a placeholder module. It enables a designer to add code that describes the function of an encoder.

[0054] A vendor of third-party interconnect IP provides such a module to chip designers so that they are able to effectively customize the interconnect IP according to their desired error protection scheme. That way the interconnect IP provider need not learn the chip designer's requirements to customize the interconnect IP and the chip designers need not redesign the interconnect IP for their requirements.

[0055] FIG. 5(a) depicts the non-transient computer readable NAND flash memory 500, arranged to store the source code file 510, as shown in FIG. 5(b). The source code of file 510 is a SystemVerilog checker placeholder according to an aspect and embodiment of the invention. It includes a receiving interface with a 32-bit data input signal and a 7-bit ECC signal. The module further includes output signal, err_pulse, which produces a pulse when the checker detects an error. Such a pulse is useful to interrupt a CPU so that it can handle such an error condition. The module further includes output 10-bit signals err_cor and err_unc. Those signals are driven by counter registers, corrected_errors and uncorrected_errors. The placeholder code allows a chip designer to count the number of errors detected through the ECC protection scheme and count the number of errors that corrected over time.

[0056] FIG. 6 shows IPs within a SoC according to various aspects in an embodiment of the invention. IP A is coupled to IP B through a NoC interconnect IP 600. NoC 600 facilitates and performs error resilient packet-based communication. For that, NoC 600 includes various units that operate on information sent from IP A to IP B. In sequence, encoder unit 602 generates redundant information according to a protection scheme as shown in FIG. 4. Packetizing unit 604 encodes data and redundant information in packets that include headers, and for some packets, payloads. Network 606 transports packets between IPs and, in some embodiments, serves to transport packets between many IPs other than IP A and IP B. Depacketizing unit 608 receives packets from network 606 and presents the data and redundant information to checking unit 610. Checking unit 610 checks the data and redundant information for consistency, and indicates errors as shown in FIG. 6.

[0057] Whereas NoC 600 performs encoding before packetizing and checking after depacketizing, FIG. 7 shows a NoC 700 in which packetizing unit 702 packetizes data for transport. Encoding unit 704 calculates redundant information according to a protection scheme. Network 706 transports protected packets to checking unit 708, which checks consistency and reports errors. Network 710 transports unmodified packets to checker 712, which checks consistency and reports errors. In accordance with the aspects of the invention, different embodiments have various numbers of checkers through which packets pass within a NoC. According to the embodiment of FIG. 7, checked packets proceed through depacketizing unit 714.

[0058] FIG. 8 shows the units of a NoC according to aspects of invention as shown in another embodiment. Packetizing unit 802 packetizes data. Encoder unit 804 calculates redundant information and encodes protected packets. Network 806 transports packets to checker unit 808, which check consistency and reports errors. Modification unit 810 modifies the packet format. In some embodiments, modification involves changing the payload data, such as by changing the serialization and in some embodiments modification involves changing the packet header, which for the purposes of protection schemes is data from which redundant information is calculated. Encoder unit 812 calculates redundant information for the modified packet, according to a protection scheme. In some embodiments, the protection scheme used by encoding unit 804 and the protection scheme used by encoder unit 812 are the same scheme, but in some embodiments, they are different schemes. Network 814 transports packets to checking unit 816, which checks consistency and reports errors. Depacketizing unit 818 depacketizes the packets and presents the data to a connected IP.

[0059] In some embodiments, depacketizing unit 818 is a widening serialization adapter. It concatenates a multiplicity of incoming data words into a wider outgoing data word. For such, encoder unit 812 concatenates the bits of the incoming parity of multiple data words into a parity signal for the wider outgoing data word.

[0060] In some embodiments, depacketizing unit 818 is a narrowing serialization adapter. It splits incoming data words into a multiplicity of narrower outgoing data words. For such, encoder unit 812 checks a certain number of ECC bits for the wide incoming data words and encoder unit 812 encodes a smaller number of ECC bits for each narrower outgoing data word.

[0061] In some embodiments, depacketizing unit 818 is a firewall unit. Unit 818 checks software-defined security bits in packet headers, and in some cases unit 818 changes the state of a packet header bit. For such, encoder unit 812 encodes outgoing ECC bit values that may differ from the incoming ECC bit values, though using the same ECC protection scheme.

[0062] FIG. 9 shows a checker/encoder 900 according to an embodiment of the invention. It receives and sends 32-bit data words. Its receive interface uses a per-byte parity scheme, with one parity bit per byte of each 32-bit (4-byte) data word. The sending interface of checker/encoder 900 uses a 7-bit SECDED ECC protection scheme. SECDED ECC is calculated per 32-bit data word. Checker/encoder 900 outputs an error signal that pulses for detected errors.

[0063] FIG. 10 shows a checker/encoder 1000 according to an embodiment of the invention. It receives and sends 32-bit data words. Its receive interface uses a per-word SEC ECC scheme, with 6 bits per 32-bit data word. The sending interface of checker/encoder 1000 uses a 7-bit SECDED ECC protection scheme. SECDED ECC is calculated per 32-bit data word. Checker/encoder 1000 outputs an error signal that pulses for detected errors.

[0064] FIG. 11 shows a checker/encoder 1100 according to an embodiment of the invention. It receives and 32-bit data words and sends four data bytes. The receive interface of checker/encoder 1100 uses a 7-bit per-word ECC scheme for the data, and includes a 60-bit unprotected control signal. The sending interface of checker/encoder 1100 uses a 5-bit SECDED ECC protection scheme per data byte. The sending interface also sends a 4-bit parity signal per control word. The checker/encoder 1100 also outputs a 10-bit count signal for detected errors and another 10-bit count signal for corrected errors.

[0065] FIG. 12 shows an encoder 1200 according to an embodiment of the invention. It receives 32-bit data words and sends 4 separate data bytes. Its receive interface uses a per-word party scheme, with 8 bits per 32-bit data word. The sending interface of encoder 1200 uses a 2-bit parity per byte protection scheme. The encoding of parity bits on the sending interface is an interleaved mapping of the bits of the incoming data word parity. Encoder 1200 does not check for errors.

[0066] Some embodiments of physical machines described and claimed herein are programmable in numerous variables, combinations of which provide essentially an infinite variety of operating behaviors. Some embodiments of hardware description language representations described and claimed herein are configured by software tools that provide numerous parameters, combinations of which provide for essentially an infinite variety of physical machine embodiments of the invention described and claimed. Methods of using such software tools to configure hardware description language representations embody the invention described and claimed. Physical machines, such as semiconductor chips; hardware description language representations of the logical or functional behavior of machines according to the invention described and claimed; and one or more non-transitory computer readable media arranged to store such hardware description language representations all can embody machines described and claimed herein.

[0067] The behavior of either or a combination of humans and machines; instructions that, if executed by one or more computers, would cause the one or more computers to perform methods according to the invention described and claimed; and one or more non-transitory computer readable media arranged to store such instructions embody methods described and claimed herein. Each of more than one non-transitory computer readable medium needed to practice the invention described and claimed herein alone embodies the invention.

[0068] Additionally, it is intended that such equivalents include both currently known equivalents and equivalents developed in the future, i.e., any elements developed that perform the same function, regardless of structure. The scope of the invention, therefore, is not intended to be limited to the exemplary embodiments shown and described herein.

[0069] In accordance with the teachings of the invention, a computer and a computing device are articles of manufacture. Other examples of an article of manufacture include: an electronic component residing on a mother board, a server, a mainframe computer, or other special purpose computer each having one or more processors (e.g., a Central Processing Unit, a Graphical Processing Unit, or a microprocessor) that is configured to execute a computer readable program code (e.g., an algorithm, hardware, firmware, and/or software) to receive data, transmit data, store data, or perform methods.

[0070] The article of manufacture (e.g., computer or computing device) includes a non-transitory computer readable medium or storage that may include a series of instructions, such as computer readable program steps or code encoded therein. In certain aspects of the invention, the non-transitory computer readable medium includes one or more data repositories. Thus, in certain embodiments that are in accordance with any aspect of the invention, computer readable program code (or code) is encoded in a non-transitory computer readable medium of the computing device. The processor or a module, in turn, executes the computer readable program code to create or amend an existing computer-aided design using a tool. The term “module” as used herein may refer to one or more circuits, components, registers, processors, software subroutines, or any combination thereof. In other aspects of the embodiments, the creation or amendment of the computer-aided design is implemented as a web-based software application in which portions of the data related to the computer-aided design or the tool or the computer readable program code are received or transmitted to a computing device of a host.

[0071] An article of manufacture or system, in accordance with various aspects of the invention, is implemented in a variety of ways: with one or more distinct processors or microprocessors, volatile and/or non-volatile memory and peripherals or peripheral controllers; with an integrated microcontroller, which has a processor, local volatile and non-volatile memory, peripherals and input/output pins; discrete logic which implements a fixed version of the article of manufacture or system; and programmable logic which implements a version of the article of manufacture or system which can be reprogrammed either through a local or remote interface. Such logic could implement a control system either in logic or via a set of commands executed by a processor.

[0072] Accordingly, the preceding merely illustrates the various aspects and principles as incorporated in various embodiments of the invention. It will be appreciated that those of ordinary skill in the art will be able to devise various arrangements, which, although not explicitly described or shown herein, embody the principles of the invention and are included within its spirit and scope. Furthermore, all examples and conditional language recited herein are principally intended to aid the reader in understanding the principles of the invention and the concepts contributed by the inventors to furthering the art, and are to be construed as being without limitation to such specifically recited examples and conditions. Moreover, all statements herein reciting principles, aspects, and embodiments of the invention, as well as specific examples thereof, are intended to encompass both structural and functional equivalents thereof. Additionally, it is intended that such equivalents include both currently known equivalents and equivalents developed in the future, i.e., any elements developed that perform the same function, regardless of structure.

[0073] The scope of the invention, therefore, is not intended to be limited to the various aspects and embodiments discussed and described herein. Rather, the scope and spirit of invention is embodied by the appended claims.