Abstract: A circuit and method are presented for signal processing and routing of digital voice telephony signals, using a specialized high-density integrated circuit voice processor. The voice processor performs several essential functions required for telephony processing, including echo cancellation, protocol conversion, and dynamic range compression/expansion. These functions are traditionally performed by multiple circuits or modules. By combining these capabilities in a single device, power and circuit board area requirements are reduced. The embodiment of the circuit and method disclosed herein include novel implementations of a time-slot interchange circuit and a telephony signaling circuit. Both of these circuits are designed to minimize demands on the signal processing engines incorporated within the voice processor, and account for very little of the on-chip circuitry.

Abstract: A comparator receives first differentials, compares the differentials to a positive offset, and sets bits dependent upon whether the differentials are greater than the positive offset. The comparator receives second differentials, compares the differentials to a negative offset, and sets bits dependent upon whether the differentials are greater than the negative offset. The comparator compares the first bits to the second bits, and sets a mask dependent upon whether the first bits and the second bits are identical. The comparator receives subsequent differentials, compares the differentials to a zero offset, and sets bits dependent upon whether the differentials are greater than the zero offset. The subsequent bits are compared to the mask and corrected.

Abstract: A method of stabilizing an identification series of bits by iteratively reading the identification series and logical OR'ing the identification series with a mask string after each read of the identification series. This produces a mask string having a first value in all positions of the mask string where bits in the identification series have never changed value during all of the readings of the identification series, representing stable bits, and a second value in all positions of the mask string where bits in the identification series have changed value during at least one of the readings of the identification series, representing unstable bits. The number of the unstable bits in the mask string having the second value is counted, and a method failure code is selectively reported when the number of unstable bits exceeds a maximum allowable number of unstable bits. An identification string is produced from the stable bits, and an identification code is calculated from the identification string.

Abstract: A circuit and method are presented for signal processing and routing of digital voice telephony signals, using a specialized high-density integrated circuit voice processor. The voice processor performs several essential functions required for telephony processing, including echo cancellation, protocol conversion, and dynamic range compression/expansion. These functions are traditionally performed by multiple circuits or modules. By combining these capabilities in a single device, power and circuit board area requirements are reduced. The embodiment of the circuit and method disclosed herein include novel implementations of a time-slot interchange circuit and a telephony signaling circuit. Both of these circuits are designed to minimize demands on the signal processing engines incorporated within the voice processor, and account for very little of the on-chip circuitry.

Abstract: A FIFO memory having an available capacity of no more than N words deep by M bits wide. A write port receives data to store in the FIFO memory, and a read port provides the data stored in the FIFO memory. X memories store the data, where each of the X memories has a size of N/X by M. Control logic receives the data from the write port, writes the data into at least one of the X memories in a serial write manner, reads the data from at least one of the X memories in a serial read manner, and provides the data to the read port. The control logic also disables power to selected ones of the X memories when they are not being written to or read from. The FIFO memory is configured to both read and write the data at a given time to a given one of the X memories.

Abstract: A comparator receives a first read of voltage differentials from a series of bit cells, compares the first read to a positive voltage offset of a given magnitude, and set bits in a first bit stream to values that are dependent upon whether the voltage differential from a given bit cell is greater than the positive voltage offset. The first bit stream is then stored in a first register. The comparator also receives a second read of the voltage differentials from the series of bit cells, compares the second read to a negative voltage offset of the given magnitude, and sets bits in a second bit stream to values that are dependent upon whether the voltage differential from a given bit cell is greater than the positive voltage offset. The second bit stream is stored in a second register. The comparator then compares the first bit stream to the second bit stream, and set bits in a mask string dependent upon whether the bits in a given position of the first bit stream and the second bit stream are identical.

Abstract: A circuit and method are presented for signal processing and routing of digital voice telephony signals, using a specialized high-density integrated circuit voice processor. The voice processor performs several essential functions required for telephony processing, including echo cancellation, protocol conversion, and dynamic range compression/expansion. These functions are traditionally performed by multiple circuits or modules. By combining these capabilities in a single device, power and circuit board area requirements are reduced. The embodiment of the circuit and method disclosed herein include novel implementations of a time-slot interchange circuit and a telephony signaling circuit. Both of these circuits are designed to minimize demands on the signal processing engines incorporated within the voice processor, and account for very little of the on-chip circuitry.

Abstract: A FIFO memory having an available capacity of no more than N words deep by M bits wide. A write port receives data to store in the FIFO memory, and a read port provides the data stored in the FIFO memory. X memories store the data, where each of the X memories has a size of N/X by M. Control logic receives the data from the write port, writes the data into at least one of the X memories in a serial write manner, reads the data from at least one of the X memories in a serial read manner, and provides the data to the read port. The control logic also disables power to selected ones of the X memories when they are not being written to or read from. The FIFO memory is configured to both read and write the data at a given time to a given one of the X memories.

Abstract: A circuit and method are presented for signal processing and routing of digital voice telephony signals, using a specialized high-density integrated circuit voice processor. The voice processor performs several essential functions required for telephony processing, including echo cancellation, protocol conversion, and dynamic range compression/expansion. These functions are traditionally performed by multiple circuits or modules. By combining these capabilities in a single device, power and circuit board area requirements are reduced. The embodiment of the circuit and method disclosed herein include novel implementations of a time-slot interchange circuit and a telephony signaling circuit. Both of these circuits are designed to minimize demands on the signal processing engines incorporated within the voice processor, and account for very little of the on-chip circuitry.

Abstract: A method of stabilizing an identification series of bits by iteratively reading the identification series and logical OR'ing the identification series with a mask string after each read of the identification series. This produces a mask string having a first value in all positions of the mask string where bits in the identification series have never changed value during all of the readings of the identification series, representing stable bits, and a second value in all positions of the mask string where bits in the identification series have changed value during at least one of the readings of the identification series, representing unstable bits. The number of the unstable bits in the mask string having the second value is counted, and a method failure code is selectively reported when the number of unstable bits exceeds a maximum allowable number of unstable bits. An identification string is produced from the stable bits, and an identification code is calculated from the identification string.

Abstract: An integrated circuit layout is provided, which includes a base platform for an integrated circuit, a processor hardmac and a support memory. The base platform includes a memory matrix having leaf cells arranged in rows and columns. Each column of leaf cells has interface pins that are routed to a common matrix edge and have a common pin order along the matrix edge. The processor hardmac is placed along the memory matrix and has a hardmac edge adjacent the memory matrix edge and a plurality of interface pins for interfacing with corresponding interface pins of the memory matrix. The interface pins of the processor hardmac have the same pin order along the hardmac edge as the interface pins along the matrix edge. The support memory for the processor hardmac is mapped to a portion of the memory matrix along the hardmac edge.

Abstract: A semiconductor device comprising one or more diffused memories and one or more diffused regions. The one or more diffused regions may be configured to provide one or more ports for the one or more diffused memories.

Abstract: An integrated circuit comprising a plurality of link layer controllers. The plurality of link layer controllers may be configured to operate independently in a first mode and cooperatively in a second mode.

Abstract: An apparatus comprising a media access controller (MAC), a configurable packet switch, and a network protocol stack in silicon. The network protocol stack may be configured to couple the media access controller to the configurable packet switch.

Abstract: A system and method are presented for the encapsulation of a protocol stack in a voice telephony processor. Utilizing the system and method disclosed herein, digital voice telephony signals received in TDM frame-based format are converted to packet-based or cell-based format for transmission on a network, and vice-versa. The system and method may be embodied as a functional block within a specialized high-density integrated circuit voice processor. The voice processor employs on-chip digital signal processors (DSPs) to perform echo cancellation, dynamic range compression/expansion, and other processing on voice data. Advantageously, the encapsulation process of the disclosed herein does not impact the throughput of the DSPs. Instead, voice data is reformatted and prefixed with a header for the appropriate protocol layers using a dedicated on-chip packet control processor and linked list data structures managed by indexed direct memory access (DMA) controllers.

Abstract: A single-chip synchronous optical network (SONET) physical layer device includes first, second and third interface ports. An asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) interface circuit is coupled to the first interface port. A point-to-point protocol (PPP) processing circuit is coupled to the second interface port and the ATM interface circuit. A SONET framer circuit is coupled between the ATM interface circuit and the third interface port and between the PPP processing circuit and the third interface port. The device is programmable to allow multiple standard and non-standard data transmission modes, including transmitting ATM cells in SONET payloads, PPP frames in ATM cells in SONET payloads, PPP frames from a UTOPIA interface in SONET payloads and PPP frames directly in SONET payloads.

Abstract: An integrated circuit comprising a plurality of link layer controllers. The plurality of link layer controllers may be configured to operate independently in a first mode and cooperatively in a second mode.

Abstract: A circuit for converting data between communication protocols at different levels of a protocol stack. The circuit generally comprises a first processor and a second processor. The first processor may be configured to convert the data between a first communication protocol and a second communication protocol. The first processor may have a plurality of first rows each having at least one first block each configured to process a portion of the data. At least one of the first rows may have a plurality of the first blocks. The second processor may be configured to convert the data between the second communication protocol and a third communication protocol. The second processor may have a plurality of second rows each having at least one second block each configured to process a portion of the data. At least one of the second rows may have a plurality of the second blocks.

Abstract: A single-chip synchronous optical network (SONET) physical layer device includes first, second and third interface ports. An asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) interface circuit is coupled to the first interface port. A point-to-point protocol (PPP) processing circuit is coupled to the second interface port and the ATM interface circuit. A SONET framer circuit is coupled between the ATM interface circuit and the third interface port and between the PPP processing circuit and the third interface port. The device is programmable to allow multiple standard and non-standard data transmission modes, including transmitting ATM cells in SONET payloads; PPP frames in ATM cells in SONET payloads, PPP frames from a UTOPIA interface in SONET payloads and PPP frames directly in SONET payloads.

Abstract: A switch system for directing a call from a calling instrument to a receiving instrument. The switch system comprises a call originator unit that is electrically connected between the calling instrument and an outgoing telephone line. The switch system also includes a call receiver unit that is electrically connected between an incoming telephone line and the receiving instrument. The incoming telephone line is electrically connected to the outgoing telephone line.