CN111565255A - Communication device and modem - Google Patents

Abstract

A communication device and a modem, the communication device comprising: a processing device; a first storage module, respectively coupled to the processing device and the modem; the processing device and the modem share the first storage module; a second storage module, coupled to the modem; the second storage module is a dedicated storage module for the modem; the modem includes a storage control module; the storage control module is adapted to, when a data processing request is received, according to The address corresponding to the data processing request determines whether to access the first storage module or the second storage module. The above solution can improve the real-time performance of the modem while reducing the cost of the communication device.

Description

Communication device and modem

technical field

The present invention relates to the field of communication technologies, and in particular, to a communication device and a modem.

Background technique

Access to Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (DDR SDRAM for short, DDR for short) is indispensable for existing modems. The MCU in the modem and each hardware (Hardware, HW for short) accelerator all require DDR to undertake a large amount of data cache.

Among the existing technical solutions, some solutions configure a dedicated DDR for the modem. Although this can meet the data buffering requirements of the modem, the implementation cost is high. Some solutions configure shared DDR for modems to meet data buffering requirements while reducing product costs. However, external memory access is usually accompanied by the problem of excessive access delay, which cannot be used in some application scenarios that require high real-time performance.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The technical problem solved by the embodiments of the present invention is that a compromise between the cost of the communication device and the real-time performance of the modem cannot be achieved.

To solve the above technical problem, an embodiment of the present invention provides a communication device, including: a processing device; a first storage module, respectively coupled to the processing device and the modem; the processing device and the modem share the a first storage module; a second storage module, coupled to the modem; the second storage module is a dedicated storage module for the modem; the modem includes a storage control module; the storage control module is adapted to receive data When processing the request, it is determined whether to access the first storage module or the second storage module according to the address corresponding to the data processing request.

Optionally, the modem further includes: a cache module, configured to cache the historical data accessed by the storage control module; the storage control module is further adapted to read the data processing request first when receiving the data processing request. If the cache module is hit, the read result will be returned; if it is not hit, the corresponding storage module will be determined according to the address corresponding to the data processing request.

Optionally, the cache module caches data that is frequently accessed in the history of the storage control module.

Optionally, the modem includes an interface unit, and the interface unit is configured to communicate with the processing device based on a serial bus.

Optionally, the storage capacity of the first storage module is greater than the storage capacity of the second storage module.

Optionally, the processing device is an application processor.

In order to solve the above technical problem, an embodiment of the present invention also provides a modem, including: a storage control module, which is adapted to, when receiving a data processing request, determine a corresponding storage module according to an address corresponding to the data processing request, so that the The storage module includes a first storage module and a second storage module, the first storage module is coupled with an external processing device and the modem, the second storage module is coupled with the modem; the external processing device The first storage module is shared with the modem; the second storage module is a dedicated storage module for the modem.

Optionally, the modem further includes: a cache module, configured to cache the historical data accessed by the storage control module; the storage control module is further adapted to read the data processing request first when receiving the data processing request. If the cache module is hit, the read result will be returned; if it is not hit, the corresponding storage module will be determined according to the address corresponding to the data processing request.

Optionally, the cache module caches data that is frequently accessed in the history of the storage controller.

Optionally, the modem includes: an interface unit; used to communicate with the external processing device based on a serial bus.

Optionally, the storage capacity of the first storage module is greater than the storage capacity of the second storage module.

Compared with the prior art, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention have the following beneficial effects:

The modem shares the first storage module with the processing device and dedicates the second storage module. The second storage module stores data with higher real-time requirements, and the first storage module stores data with lower real-time requirements. The first storage module shared by the modem and the processing device can reduce the storage capacity of the second storage module to reduce the cost of the modem, thereby reducing the cost of the communication device; setting the second storage module for the modem can improve the real-time performance of the modem.

Further, after the modem receives the data processing request, it first reads the cache module, and if it hits, it directly returns the read result. Since the speed of reading data from the cache module is faster, it can further improve the real-time performance of the demodulator. sex.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a modem in an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed ways

As mentioned above, among the existing technical solutions, some solutions configure a dedicated DDR for the modem, although this can meet the data buffering requirements of the modem, but the implementation cost is high. Some solutions configure shared DDR for modems to meet data buffering requirements while reducing product costs. However, external memory access is usually accompanied by the problem of excessive access delay, which cannot be used in some application scenarios that require high real-time performance.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the first storage module shared by the modem and the processing device can reduce the storage capacity of the second storage module to reduce the cost of the modem; setting the second storage module for the modem can improve the real-time performance of the modem.

In order to make the above objects, features and beneficial effects of the present invention more clearly understood, specific embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to FIG. 1, a communication apparatus in an embodiment of the present invention is shown. In this embodiment of the present invention, the communication apparatus may include a processing device 11 , a first storage module 12 , a second storage module 13 , and a modem 14 .

In a specific implementation, the processing device 11 may be an application processor (Application Processor, AP), or may be other electronic components independent of the modem 14 and capable of data processing.

In a specific implementation, the first storage module 12 may be coupled to the modem 14 and the processing device 11 respectively. The first storage module 12 can store the data required by the processing device 11 when working and the data required by the modem 14 when working, that is, the processing device 11 and the modem 14 can share the first storage module 12 . When the communication device is working, both the processing device 11 and the modem 14 can perform data reading, writing, and erasing operations on the first storage module 12 .

In a specific implementation, the first storage module 12 can be pre-divided into at least two storage areas, one of which can be used to store the data required by the processing device 11 when working, and the other storage area can be used to store the working data of the modem 14 data required. When the first storage module 12 is divided into at least two storage areas, it can be implemented by means of address interval division, and there is no intersection of address spaces corresponding to different storage areas.

For example, the first storage module 12 is divided into area A, area B, and area C, and the address interval of area A, the address interval of area B, and the address interval of area C are independent of each other and have no intersection.

In other words, in this embodiment of the present invention, the first storage module 12 may be divided into a plurality of independent storage areas, so as to avoid data crossing between different processing devices 11 and between the processing devices 11 and the modem 14. .

It can be understood that, one or more areas of the first storage module 12 may also be shared by different processing devices 11 , or shared by the processing device 11 and the modem 14 .

In a specific implementation, the second storage module 13 may only be coupled with the modem 14 . In this embodiment of the present invention, the second storage module 13 may be an exclusive storage module of the modem 14 , and the data stored therein is the data required in the working process of the modem 14 .

Referring to FIG. 2, a schematic structural diagram of a modem 14 in an embodiment of the present invention is given.

In a specific implementation, with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 , the modem 14 may include a storage control module 141 , and the storage control module 141 may be coupled with the second storage module 13 . When receiving the data processing request, the storage control module 141 may determine whether to access the first storage module 12 or the second storage module 13 according to the address corresponding to the data processing request.

In practical application, it can be known that the modem 14, the processing device 11, etc. all belong to the physical layer, and the application layer can be regarded as the upper layer of the physical layer. When the upper layer needs to perform data processing operations, a data processing request will be generated and sent to the physical layer, and the physical layer will perform the corresponding data processing operations and feed back the obtained processing results to the upper layer. The data processing request issued by the upper layer may generally include the type and address corresponding to the data processing. For example, the data processing request is to read data A, and the corresponding address is the address where data A is stored.

After receiving the data processing request, the storage control module 141 of the modem 14 can obtain the address corresponding to the data processing request therefrom, and then determine whether the address space corresponding to the address is in the first storage module 12 or the second storage module 13 . If the address space corresponding to the address is in the first storage module 12, the storage control module 141 accesses the first storage module 12; if the address space corresponding to the address is in the second storage module 13, the storage control module 141 accesses the second storage module 13.

In a specific implementation, since the processing device 11 and the modem 14 share the first storage module 12, a larger capacity of the first storage module 12 can be provided. The second storage module 13 is a dedicated storage module for the modem 14, so a second storage module 13 with a smaller capacity can be provided. In this embodiment of the present invention, the storage capacity of the first storage module 12 may be set to be greater than the storage capacity of the second storage module 13 .

For example, the storage capacity of the first storage module 12 may be set to 512M, and the storage capacity of the second storage module 13 may be set to be 128M.

In a specific implementation, the storage control module 141 may communicate with the first storage module 12 through a data bus (BUS), so as to perform corresponding operations on the first storage module 12 according to the data processing request.

In practical applications, there are some application scenarios that require high real-time performance, such as voice call scenarios. In this embodiment of the present invention, data for executing application scenarios with higher real-time requirements may be stored in the second storage module 13 , and data for executing application scenarios with lower real-time requirements may be stored in the first storage module 12 .

In a specific implementation, the first storage module 12 may be a storage module corresponding to the processing device 11 . Generally, the storage capacity of the first storage module 12 is relatively large, and the first storage module 12 may have a certain storage space that is not used by the processing device 11 . Therefore, in the embodiment of the present invention, the unused storage space in the above-mentioned first storage module 12 can be fully utilized to store the data corresponding to the modem 14 with low real-time requirements.

It can be seen that the modem and the processing device share the first storage module, which can reduce the storage capacity of the second storage module, thereby reducing the cost of the modem. A dedicated second storage module is provided for the modem, and the second storage module stores data requiring higher real-time performance, which can improve the real-time performance of the modem.

In a specific implementation, the modem 14 may further be provided with a cache module 143, the cache module 143 may be coupled with the storage control module 141, and is adapted to cache the historical data recently accessed by the storage control module 141. The cache module 143 may be a first-level cache, a second-level cache, or the like.

When the storage control module 141 receives the data processing request, it can read the cache module 143 first. If it can be hit from the cache module 143, the read result is directly returned; if it can not be hit from the cache module 143, the storage control module 141 determines the corresponding storage module according to the address corresponding to the data processing request.

Since the cache module 143 stores the historical data accessed by the storage control module 141, if there is data corresponding to the current data processing request in the historical data, the data can be directly read from the cache module 143 and returned. Since there is no need to look up data from the storage module, the speed of reading data from the cache module 143 is faster than the speed of reading data from the storage module.

In practical applications, in order to save costs, the storage capacity of the cache module 143 is usually small, so the data that can be stored therein is also relatively limited. Therefore, the historical data cached by the cache module 143 may be the most frequently accessed data in the history of the storage control module 141 .

The data cached by the cache module 143 can also be updated. When the stored data reaches the upper limit of the cache module 143, some data can be deleted and new data can be added.

In a specific implementation, the modem 14 may further include an interface unit 144 , and the modem 14 may communicate with the processing device 11 based on a serial bus through the interface unit 144 . In this embodiment of the present invention, the modem 14 may communicate with the processing device 11 through a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express, PCI Express for short, PCIE for short).

In a specific implementation, the modem 14 may further include a functional module 142 , and the functional module 142 may be a microprocessor (Micro Controller Unit, MCU) of the modem 14 or a hardware accelerator of the modem 14 or the like.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the first storage module 12 may be a DDR, and the second storage module 13 may also be a DDR.

Although the present invention is disclosed above, the present invention is not limited thereto. Any person skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention should be based on the scope defined by the claims.

Claims (11)

1. A communications apparatus, comprising:

a processing device;

a first storage module coupled to the processing device and a modem, respectively, the processing device and the modem sharing the first storage module;

a second storage module coupled to the modem, wherein the second storage module is a dedicated storage module for the modem;

the modem comprises a storage control module, and the storage control module is suitable for determining whether to access the first storage module or the second storage module according to the address corresponding to the data processing request when receiving the data processing request.

2. The communications apparatus of claim 1, wherein the modem further comprises: the cache module is used for caching the historical data accessed by the storage control module;

the storage control module is also suitable for reading the cache module when receiving the data processing request, and returning a reading result if the data processing request is hit; and if the data processing request is not hit, determining the corresponding storage module according to the address corresponding to the data processing request.

3. The communications apparatus of claim 2, wherein the caching module caches data that is historically accessed frequently by the storage control module.

4. The communication apparatus of claim 2, wherein the modem comprises an interface unit for communicating with the processing device based on a serial bus.

5. The communication apparatus of claim 1, wherein a storage capacity of the first storage module is greater than a storage capacity of the second storage module.

6. A communication apparatus as claimed in any of claims 1 to 5, wherein the processing device is an application processor.

7. A modem, comprising:

the storage control module is suitable for determining a corresponding storage module according to an address corresponding to a data processing request when the data processing request is received, and comprises a first storage module and a second storage module, wherein the first storage module is coupled with an external processing device and the modem, and the second storage module is coupled with the modem; the external processing device shares the first memory module with the modem; the second storage module is a dedicated storage module of the modem.

8. The modem of claim 7, wherein the modem further comprises: the cache module is used for caching the historical data accessed by the storage control module;

the storage control module is also suitable for reading the cache module when receiving the data processing request, and returning a reading result if the data processing request is hit; and if the data processing request is not hit, determining the corresponding storage module according to the address corresponding to the data processing request.

9. The modem of claim 8, wherein the cache module caches historically high frequency accessed data by the storage controller.

10. The modem of claim 7, comprising: an interface unit; for communicating with the external processing device over a serial bus.

11. A modem according to any of claims 7 to 10, wherein the storage capacity of the first storage module is greater than the storage capacity of the second storage module.

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