Patents by Inventor William Earnshaw

William Earnshaw has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11809316
    Abstract: An apparatus has processing circuitry (18), and memory access circuitry (35) to control access to a memory system based on memory attribute data identifying each memory region as one of a plurality of region types. A speculation-restricted region type is supported, for which: at least when a first read request is non-speculatively issued to a region of the speculation-restricted type, a subsequent read request is permitted to be serviced using data obtained in response to the first read request; and for a speculatively issued read request to the region of the speculation-restricted type, at least when caching the read data would require allocation of a new entry in the cache, at least one response action, which is permitted for non-speculatively issued read requests specifying a target memory region of the speculation-restricted region type, may be prohibited from being performed before the first read request has been resolved as correct.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 9, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2023
    Assignee: Arm Limited
    Inventor: Richard William Earnshaw
  • Patent number: 11625316
    Abstract: An apparatus has processing circuitry to perform data processing in response to instructions; at least one control storage element to store internal state for controlling operation of the processing circuitry; and checksum generating circuitry to generate a checksum based on at least one item of internal state stored in the at least one control storage element. The checksum is stored in a diagnostic storage location from which information is accessible to a diagnostic control agent (e.g. software executing on the processing circuitry and/or an external device). This makes design of software test libraries for detecting hardware faults much more efficient.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 11, 2023
    Assignee: Arm Limited
    Inventors: Spyros Lyberis, Richard William Earnshaw
  • Patent number: 11467842
    Abstract: There is provided input circuitry to receive input data. Output circuitry outputs a sequence of instructions to be executed by data processing circuitry. Generation circuitry performs a generation process to generate the sequence of instructions using the input data with at least some of the instructions being grouped into functions. The sequence of instructions comprises an indirect control flow instruction comprising a field that indicates where a target of the indirect control flow instruction is stored. The target is an entry point to one of the functions and the generation process causes at least one of the instructions in the sequence of instructions to store a state of control flow speculation after execution of the indirect control flow instruction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2022
    Assignee: Arm Limited
    Inventors: Richard William Earnshaw, Kristof Evariste Georges Beyls, James Greenhalgh, Scott Alan Douglass
  • Patent number: 11347506
    Abstract: An apparatus, method and computer program are described, the apparatus comprising decode circuitry configured to decode instructions, and processing circuitry responsive to the instructions decoded by the decode circuitry to perform data processing. In response to the decode circuitry decoding a memory copy size determining instruction specifying as operands a source memory address, a destination memory address and a total number of bytes to be copied from a source block of memory locations indicated by the source memory address to a destination block of memory locations indicated by the destination memory address, the processing circuitry is configured to determine, based on at least one of the source memory address and the destination memory address, a memory copy size indicating value indicative of a subset of the total number of bytes to be copied. A data transfer instruction is also described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 15, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2022
    Assignee: Arm Limited
    Inventors: James Tsung-Lun Yang, Richard William Earnshaw
  • Patent number: 11263016
    Abstract: There is provided an apparatus including input circuitry that receives input data. Output circuitry outputs a sequence of instructions to be executed by data processing circuitry, at least some of the instructions being grouped into functions and generation circuitry performs a generation process to generate the sequence of instructions using the input data. The generation process causes at least one of the instructions in the sequence of instructions to store a state of control flow speculation performed during execution of the sequence of instructions and the stored state of control flow speculation is maintained between the functions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2022
    Assignee: Arm Limited
    Inventors: Kristof Evariste Georges Beyls, Richard William Earnshaw, James Greenhalgh
  • Patent number: 11256513
    Abstract: There is provided an apparatus that includes input circuitry to receive input data and output circuitry to output a sequence of instructions to be executed by data processing circuitry. Generation circuitry performs a generation process to generate the sequence of instructions using the input data. The sequence of instructions comprises an indirect control flow instruction having a field that indicates where a target of the indirect control flow instruction is stored. The generation process causes at least one of the instructions in the sequence of instructions to store a state of control flow speculation after execution of the indirect control flow instruction. The at least one of the instructions in the sequence of instructions that stores the state of control flow speculation is inhibited from being subject to data value speculation by the data processing circuitry.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 22, 2022
    Assignee: Arm Limited
    Inventors: Richard William Earnshaw, Kristof Evariste Georges Beyls, James Greenhalgh
  • Patent number: 11210576
    Abstract: According to the present techniques there is provided a data processing device, for applying to packaging, the device having a flexible substrate, the flexible substrate comprising: storage circuitry to store device data therein; processing circuitry to process the device data; and communication circuitry to communicate with a remote resource to transmit the device data thereto; sensor circuitry to generate sensed device data, and wherein the device is configured to store the sensed device data in the storage circuitry, process the sensed device data and/or transmit the sensed device data to a remote resource.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 18, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 28, 2021
    Assignee: ARM IP Limited
    Inventors: Geoffrey Wyman Blake, Hugo John Martin Vincent, Amyas Edward Wykes Phillips, Richard William Earnshaw, Peter Guy Middleton
  • Publication number: 20210240619
    Abstract: An apparatus has processing circuitry (18), and memory access circuitry (35) to control access to a memory system based on memory attribute data identifying each memory region as one of a plurality of region types. A speculation-restricted region type is supported, for which: at least when a first read request is non-speculatively issued to a region of the speculation-restricted type, a subsequent read request is permitted to be serviced using data obtained in response to the first read request; and for a speculatively issued read request to the region of the speculation-restricted type, at least when caching the read data would require allocation of a new entry in the cache, at least one response action, which is permitted for non-speculatively issued read requests specifying a target memory region of the speculation-restricted region type, may be prohibited from being performed before the first read request has been resolved as correct.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 9, 2019
    Publication date: August 5, 2021
    Inventor: Richard William EARNSHAW
  • Publication number: 20210149674
    Abstract: There is provided an apparatus that includes input circuitry to receive input data and output circuitry to output a sequence of instructions to be executed by data processing circuitry. Generation circuitry performs a generation process to generate the sequence of instructions using the input data. The sequence of instructions comprises an indirect control flow instruction having a field that indicates where a target of the indirect control flow instruction is stored. The generation process causes at least one of the instructions in the sequence of instructions to store a state of control flow speculation after execution of the indirect control flow instruction. The at least one of the instructions in the sequence of instructions that stores the state of control flow speculation is inhibited from being subject to data value speculation by the data processing circuitry.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 14, 2019
    Publication date: May 20, 2021
    Applicant: Arm Limited
    Inventors: Richard William EARNSHAW, Kristof Evariste Georges BEYLS, James GREENHALGH
  • Publication number: 20210089853
    Abstract: According to the present techniques there is provided a data processing device, for applying to packaging, the device having a flexible substrate, the flexible substrate comprising: storage circuitry to store device data therein; processing circuitry to process the device data; and communication circuitry to communicate with a remote resource to transmit the device data thereto; sensor circuitry to generate sensed device data, and wherein the device is configured to store the sensed device data in the storage circuitry, process the sensed device data and/or transmit the sensed device data to a remote resource.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 18, 2018
    Publication date: March 25, 2021
    Inventors: Geoffrey Wyman Blake, Hugo John Martin Vincent, Amyas Edward Wykes Phillips, Richard William Earnshaw, Peter Guy Middleton
  • Publication number: 20210034360
    Abstract: There is provided an apparatus including input circuitry that receives input data. Output circuitry outputs a sequence of instructions to be executed by data processing circuitry, at least some of the instructions being grouped into functions and generation circuitry performs a generation process to generate the sequence of instructions using the input data. The generation process causes at least one of the instructions in the sequence of instructions to store a state of control flow speculation performed during execution of the sequence of instructions and the stored state of control flow speculation is maintained between the functions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 11, 2019
    Publication date: February 4, 2021
    Inventors: Kristof Evariste Georges BEYLS, Richard William EARNSHAW, James GREENHALGH
  • Publication number: 20210026957
    Abstract: There is provided input circuitry to receive input data. Output circuitry outputs a sequence of instructions to be executed by data processing circuitry. Generation circuitry performs a generation process to generate the sequence of instructions using the input data with at least some of the instructions being grouped into functions. The sequence of instructions comprises an indirect control flow instruction comprising a field that indicates where a target of the indirect control flow instruction is stored. The target is an entry point to one of the functions and the generation process causes at least one of the instructions in the sequence of instructions to store a state of control flow speculation after execution of the indirect control flow instruction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 14, 2019
    Publication date: January 28, 2021
    Inventors: Richard William EARNSHAW, Kristof Evariste Georges BEYLS, James GREENHALGH, Scott Alan DOUGLASS
  • Patent number: 10776266
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure relate to an apparatus comprising a requester master processing device having an associated private cache storage to store data for access by the requester master processing device. The requester master processing device is arranged to issue a request to modify data that is associated with a given memory address and stored in a private cache storage associated with a recipient master processing device. The private cache storage associated with the recipient master processing device is arranged to store data for access by the recipient master processing device. The apparatus further comprises the recipient master processing device having its private cache storage. One of the recipient master processing device and its associated private cache storage is arranged to perform the requested modification of the data while the data is stored in the cache storage associated with the recipient master processing device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 7, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2020
    Assignee: Arm Limited
    Inventors: Joshua Randall, Alejandro Rico Carro, Jose Alberto Joao, Richard William Earnshaw, Alasdair Grant
  • Publication number: 20200226050
    Abstract: An apparatus has processing circuitry to perform data processing in response to instructions; at least one control storage element to store internal state for controlling operation of the processing circuitry; and checksum generating circuitry to generate a checksum based on at least one item of internal state stored in the at least one control storage element. The checksum is stored in a diagnostic storage location from which information is accessible to a diagnostic control agent (e.g. software executing on the processing circuitry and/or an external device). This makes design of software test libraries for detecting hardware faults much more efficient.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 13, 2020
    Publication date: July 16, 2020
    Inventors: Spyros LYBERIS, Richard William EARNSHAW
  • Publication number: 20200142826
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure relate to an apparatus comprising a requester master processing device having an associated private cache storage to store data for access by the requester master processing device. The requester master processing device is arranged to issue a request to modify data that is associated with a given memory address and stored in a private cache storage associated with a recipient master processing device. The private cache storage associated with the recipient master processing device is arranged to store data for access by the recipient master processing device. The apparatus further comprises the recipient master processing device having its private cache storage. One of the recipient master processing device and its associated private cache storage is arranged to perform the requested modification of the data while the data is stored in the cache storage associated with the recipient master processing device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 7, 2018
    Publication date: May 7, 2020
    Inventors: Joshua RANDALL, Alejandro Rico CARRO, Jose Alberto JOAO, Richard William EARNSHAW, Alasdair GRANT
  • Publication number: 20050190785
    Abstract: A method of operating in a network (e.g., a power line communication network) in which a plurality of stations communicate over a shared medium (e.g., an AC power line) having a periodically varying channel. The method includes determining a plurality of channel adaptations (e.g., tone maps) for communication between a pair of stations, and assigning a different one of the plurality of channel adaptations to each of a plurality of phase regions of the periodically varying channel.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 26, 2004
    Publication date: September 1, 2005
    Inventors: Lawrence Yonge, Srinivas Katar, Stanley Kostoff, William Earnshaw, Bart Blanchard, Hassan Afkhamie, Harper Mashburn
  • Publication number: 20050114489
    Abstract: A method of operating in a network in which a plurality of stations communicate over a shared medium, comprising providing a physical layer (e.g., PHY) for handling physical communication over the shared medium; providing a high level layer (e.g., PAL) that receives data from the station and supplies high level data units (e.g., MSDUs) for transmission over the medium; providing a MAC layer that receives the high level data units from the high level layer and supplies low level data units (e.g., MPDUs) to the physical layer; at the MAC layer, encapsulating content from a plurality of the high level data units; dividing the encapsulated content into a plurality of pieces (e.g., segments) with each piece capable of being independently retransmitted; and supplying low level data units containing one or more of the plurality of pieces.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 24, 2003
    Publication date: May 26, 2005
    Inventors: Lawrence Yonge, Srinivas Katar, Stanley Kostoff, William Earnshaw, Bart Blanchard, Timothy Gargrave
  • Publication number: 20040199889
    Abstract: A system of modeling an integrated circuit is described in which a circuit component model 6 is operated upon by a delay calculator 16 using a subset of associated timing and rule data 20. The delay calculator 16 calculates signal transition delays within the circuit component model 6. The output of the delay calculator 16 is searched to identify corresponding signal transitions within the original model 4. Matching transitions are then updated with the calculated delay information augmented with the full set of associated timing and rule data 23 (with constraint data).
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 5, 2004
    Publication date: October 7, 2004
    Applicant: ARM LIMITED
    Inventors: Richard William Earnshaw, John Philip Biggs
  • Patent number: 6227370
    Abstract: A tiered pack comprising a plurality of tiers 10, 10′, 10″ each comprising a generally planar base 1 and a plurality of compartment defining dividers 21 supported thereon, wherein one or more dividers 21 of at least one of the tiers and the base 1 of an adjacent tier include respective complementary engaging means 16, 24 for enhancing the stability and rigidity of the pack. The pack may be placed on a conventional pallet and shrink-wrapped once each compartment has been filled with goods thereby forming a transit package.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 1999
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2001
    Assignee: Linpac Containers Limited
    Inventors: Nigel William Earnshaw, Michael Hartley
  • Patent number: 6034988
    Abstract: An apparatus and methods are provided for network radio frequency ("RF") data communications. The apparatus preferably has an extended channel radio transmitter for selectively transmitting data communication radio signals across a plurality of different carrier frequencies which respectively define a plurality of extended data communication channels. The transmitter preferably includes a channel scanner for scanning the extended data communication channels for availability prior to transmitting across a selected one of the plurality of extended data communication channels. An extended channel radio receiver is responsive to the extended channel radio transmitter for receiving the data communication signals from the selected one of the extended data communication channels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 1997
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2000
    Assignee: Intellon Corporation
    Inventors: James E. VanderMey, James Patella, Bart Blanchard, William Earnshaw, Gregory Magin