While reviewing the CHI Link Layer specification, I noticed that certain signals such as FLITPEND, FLITV, etc., are defined as being transmitted from the Master to the Slave.
My understanding is that beyond the Link Layer, all information is encapsulated and transported as FLITs over the NoC. Given this, I would like to clarify how these Link Layer signals are conveyed from the Master to the Slave in practice.
Specifically, are these signals:
Encoded within the FLITs themselves as part of the Link Layer protocol semantics, or
Transmitted as separate/control FLITs ahead of the actual request FLITs to the Home Node (HN)?
I would appreciate your guidance on how these signals are expected to be handled in a NoC-based implementation.
Thank you for your time.