Method and system for a RFIC master
Methods and systems for a RFIC master are disclosed. Aspects of one method may include configuring an on-chip programmable device that may function as a master on a bus that has at least one device interface, for example, RFIC interface, coupled to the bus. The on-chip programmable device may generate at least one signal to control at least one device coupled to at least one device interface. The on-chip programmable device may communicate the generated signal via the bus upon receiving an input timer signal and may be configured by writing at least one event data and an index-sample data to the on-chip programmable device. The index-sample data may comprise at least a count value and an event data index. When the count value equals a value of the timer signal, event data may be fetched and executed starting with the one specified by the event data index.
1. A method for handling operation of circuitry, the method comprising:
configuring an on-chip programmable device that functions as a master on a first bus, wherein the first bus comprises a second bus and a third bus coupled via a bridge, wherein the second bus is a high speed bus and the third bus is a low speed bus, wherein the on-chip programmable device comprises a high-speed second bus interface that directly interfaces the second bus and a low-speed third bus interface that directly interfaces the third bus, wherein at least one interface to another device is coupled to said third bus, the at least one interface comprising a general purpose input/output interface, a three-wire interface and a digital-to-analog converter control interface, wherein said another device comprises a front-end transmitter, a front-end receiver and a baseband processor, wherein said another device is off an integrated circuit (IC) chip that comprises the on-chip programmable device, wherein the on-chip programmable device is programmed by a processor via the high-speed second bus interface, the processor directly accessing the second bus, the on-chip programmable device directly accessing the second bus and directly accessing the third bus; and
controlling said another device coupled to said at least one interface via at least one signal generated by said on-chip programmable device, wherein said at least one generated signal is communicated via said third bus to said at least one interface when said on-chip programmable device receives an input timer signal.
2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said timer signal comprises a count that correlates to a number of wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) chip periods.
3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein said count that correlates to a number of WCDMA chip periods is referenced to a start of a WCDMA slot.
4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said timer signal comprises a count of a number of time periods, wherein said time period is greater than a WCDMA chip period.
5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said configuring comprises writing at least one event data to said on-chip programmable device.
6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said configuring comprises writing an index-sample data to said on-chip programmable device.
7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein said index-sample data comprises a count value and an index value.
8. The method according to claim 6 , wherein said index-sample data comprises an event data index.
9. The method according to claim 8 , further comprising fetching said event data specified by said event data index upon determining that said count value equals a value of said timer signal, said event data being fetched from a register of the on-chip programmable device, said event data having been written by the processor via the high-speed second bus interface.
10. The method according to claim 9 , further comprising fetching a next event data after executing at least a portion of said fetched event data.
11. The method according to claim 9 , further comprising entering an idle state if said index-sample data comprises a specified value.
12. The method according to claim 9 , wherein said event data comprises an instruction field, a data field, and an address field.
13. The method according to claim 12 ,
wherein said event data index stored in an event detector of said on-chip programmable device is used by a state machine of said on-chip programmable device to look up the event data stored in a register of said on-chip programmable device, and
wherein a data processor of said on-chip programmable device parses the event data corresponding to the event data index and executes an instruction residing in the instruction field of the event data.
14. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said at least one said another device is part of a radio frequency integrated circuit (RF IC).
15. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said at least one said another device is on-chip.
16. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the on-chip programmable device comprises a register, a state machine, a second processor and an event detector.
17. The method according to claim 16 , comprising:
writing event data into the register;
writing index-sample data into the event detector; and
fetching a portion of the written event data from the register by using an index value that is part of the index-sample data.
18. The method according to claim 16 , comprising:
writing event data into the register;
writing index-sample data into the event detector; and
fetching an instruction that is part of the written event data from the register by using an index value that is part of the index-sample data; and
executing the fetched instruction in the second processor.
19. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the processor and the on-chip programmable device communicate on the second bus without using the bridge.
20. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one interface directly interfaces with the third bus, and wherein the on-chip programmable device communicates with the at least one interface via the third bus without using the bridge.