Dynamic system management communication path selection
View Patent ↗An information handling system includes a processor, a controller hub, a shared higher bandwidth path coupling the processor to the controller hub, and an exclusive lower bandwidth path coupling the processor to the controller hub. The processor communicates system management information over the bandwidth path in response to a first set of criteria and communicates the information over the lower bandwidth path in response to the second set of criteria.
1. An information handling system comprising:
a processor;
a controller hub;
a shared, higher bandwidth path coupling the processor to the controller hub; and
an exclusive, lower bandwidth path coupling the processor to the controller hub, wherein the processor is configured to communicate system management information over the shared, higher bandwidth path in response to a first set of criteria and to communicate the system management information over the exclusive, lower bandwidth path in response to a second set of the criteria, wherein a first instance of the first set of the criteria is satisfied before an instance of the second set of the criteria is satisfied, and wherein a second instance of the first set of the criteria is satisfied after the instance of the second set of the criteria is satisfied.
2. The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein the controller hub is a southbridge controller hub (SCH).
3. The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein the exclusive, lower bandwidth path is an environmental control interface (ECI) and the system management information comprises system environmental control information.
4. The information handling system of claim 3 , wherein the system environmental control information comprises processor thermal management information.
5. The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein the first set of the criteria and the second set of the criteria are based on a power-saving activity-enablement state of the processor.
6. The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein the first set of the criteria and the second set of the criteria are based on a utilization metric of the processor.
7. The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein the first set of the criteria and the second set of the criteria are user programmable.
8. The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein the first set of the criteria and the second set of the criteria are selectable among groups of sets of the criteria.
9. The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein one group of the groups of the sets of the criteria is configured to maximize system performance per unit of power consumed.
10. A method comprising:
transitioning from communicating a first message of system management information over a shared, higher bandwidth path to communicating a second message of the system management information over an exclusive, lower bandwidth path in response to a second set of criteria;
transitioning from communicating over the exclusive, lower bandwidth path to communicating a third message of the system management information over the shared, higher bandwidth path in response to a first set of the criteria; and
transitioning from communicating over the shared, higher bandwidth path to communicating a third message of the system management information over the exclusive, lower bandwidth path.
11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the exclusive, lower bandwidth path is an environmental control interface (ECI) and the system management information comprises system environmental control information.
12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the system environmental control information comprises processor thermal management information.
13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the first set of the criteria and the second set of the criteria are based on a power-saving activity-enablement state of the processor and a utilization metric of the processor.
14. The method of claim 10 , wherein communicating over the exclusive, lower bandwidth path maintains a dormancy of a power-saving activity-enablement state of the processor.
15. A method comprising:
determining a parameter value of a parameter suggestive of a dormancy of a processor;
in response to the parameter value suggesting the processor to be active, communicating system management information over a higher bandwidth path; and
in response to the parameter value suggesting the processor to be dormant, communicating the system management information over a lower bandwidth path, wherein the communicating the system management information over the lower bandwidth path preserves the dormancy of the processor.
16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the system management information comprises processor thermal management information being transmitted directly from the processor to a southbridge controller hub (SCH).
17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the SCH provides the system management information to a baseboard management controller (BMC) coupled to the SCH via an intelligent platform management interface (IPMI).
18. The method of claim 15 , wherein the parameter suggestive of the dormancy of the processor is a central processing unit (CPU) power state (C-state).
19. The method of claim 15 , wherein the parameter suggestive of the dormancy of the processor is a processor utilization metric.
20. The method of claim 15 , wherein the communicating the system management information over the higher bandwidth path occurs in conjunction with inter-core communication of the system management information between processor cores of the processor.