Multiport Memory Patents (Class 711/149)
  • Patent number: 9256556
    Abstract: A RAM memory device includes a selection unit that supplies the access reaching one of two interfaces to a RAM in one cycle of a clock signal in response to a control signal. The RAM memory device also includes a storage unit that stores another access that has reached the other of the two interfaces at least till the next cycle following the above-mentioned one cycle in response to the control signal. The selection unit supplies the above-mentioned another access from the storage unit to the RAM in or after the above-mentioned next cycle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 16, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 9, 2016
    Assignee: LAPIS SEMICONDUCTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Tomoyuki Maeda
  • Patent number: 9251054
    Abstract: A method, system and computer program product are provided for implementing enhanced reliability of memory subsystems utilizing a dual port Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) configuration. The DRAM configuration includes a first buffer and a second buffer, each buffer including a validity counter. The validity counter for a receiving buffer is incremented as each respective data row from a transferring buffer is validated through Error Correction Code (ECC), Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability (RAS) logic and transferred to the receiving buffer, while the validity counter for the transferring buffer is decremented. Data are read from or written to either the first buffer or the second buffer based upon a respective count value of the validity counters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2016
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Edgar R. Cordero, Carlos A. Fernandez, Joab D. Henderson, Jeffrey A. Sabrowski, Anuwat Saetow, Saravanan Sethuraman
  • Patent number: 9244885
    Abstract: An apparatus relating generally to accumulation is disclosed. In this apparatus, a first subtraction-bypass stage is coupled to receive an input operand and a modulus operand to provide a first difference and the input operand. An accumulation stage is coupled to the first subtraction-bypass stage to receive the first difference and the input operand. The accumulation stage is coupled to receive an offset operand for providing an offset-accumulated result. A second subtraction-bypass stage is coupled to receive the offset operand and the modulus operand to provide a second difference and the offset operand. A consolidation stage is coupled to receive the offset operand, the second difference and the offset-accumulated result to provide a consolidated accumulated result. The first subtraction-bypass stage, the accumulation stage, the second subtraction-bypass stage, and the consolidation stage are for a redundant number system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2016
    Assignee: XILINX, INC.
    Inventors: Gordon I. Old, Andrew Whyte
  • Patent number: 9244841
    Abstract: A processor includes a first cache memory and a bus unit in some embodiments. The bus unit includes a plurality of buffers and is operable to allocate a selected buffer of a plurality of buffers for a fill request associated with a first cache line to be stored in a first cache memory, load fill data from the first cache line into the selected buffer, and transfer the fill data to the first cache memory in parallel with storing eviction data for an evicted cache line from the first cache memory in the selected buffer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2016
    Assignee: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
    Inventors: Jeff Rupley, Tarun Nakra
  • Patent number: 9224454
    Abstract: An integrated circuit (IC) device can include a static random access memory (SRAM) section comprising a plurality of memory banks; and an interface comprising physical connections for more than eight memory channels, the connections for each memory channel including an address section including connections for SRAM control inputs and a complete address to access the memory banks, and a data section including data inputs and outputs (data IOs) to transfer data for one memory bank.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2015
    Assignee: Cypress Semiconductor Corporation
    Inventors: Dinesh Maheshwari, Derwin W. Mattos, Avi Avanindra
  • Patent number: 9218290
    Abstract: Described embodiments provide for storing data in a local cache of one of a plurality of processing modules of a network processor. A control processing module determines presence of data stored in its local cache while concurrently sending a request to read the data from a shared memory and from one or more local caches corresponding to other of the plurality of processing modules. Each of the plurality of processing modules responds whether the data is located in one or more corresponding local caches. The control processing module determines, based on the responses, presence of the data in the local caches corresponding to the other processing modules. If the data is present in one of the local caches corresponding to one of the other processing modules, the control processing module reads the data from the local cache containing the data and cancels the read request to the shared memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 22, 2015
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: David P. Sonnier, David A. Brown, Charles Edward Peet, Jr.
  • Patent number: 9218306
    Abstract: Disclosed is a memory sharing circuit for sharing a memory, the circuit including a plurality of unit processors connected to the memory, wherein the unit processor includes a buffer configured to be connected through the memory, a buffering address and a data bus, and a processor configured to be connected to the buffer for access to the memory through the buffer, and wherein the plurality of unit processors is configured to allow the processors to share the memory by preventing address/data bus collision for access to the memory by the processors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 22, 2015
    Assignee: LSIS Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Hong seon Ahn
  • Patent number: 9164903
    Abstract: A memory management device including a plurality of outputs, each output configured to interface to respective one of a plurality of memories; and a controller configured to cause each buffer allocated to the memories to be divided up substantially equally between each of the plurality of memories.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 12, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2015
    Assignee: STMICROELECTRONICS (RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT) LIMITED
    Inventor: Davide Sarta
  • Patent number: 9137173
    Abstract: Described are aggregation devices and methods for interconnecting server nodes. The aggregation device can include an input region, an output region, and a memory switch. The input region includes a plurality of input ports. The memory switch has a shared through silicon via (TSV) memory coupled to the input ports for temporarily storing data received at the input ports from a plurality of source devices. The output region includes a plurality of output ports coupled to the TSV memory. The output ports provide the data to a plurality of destination devices. A memory allocation system coordinates a transfer of the data from the source devices to the TSV memory. The output ports receive and process the data from the TSV memory independently of a communication from the input ports.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2015
    Assignee: ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES, INC.
    Inventors: David E. Mayhew, Mark Hummel, Michael J. Osborn
  • Patent number: 9122522
    Abstract: Embodiments describe herein provide a method of for managing task scheduling on a accelerated processing device. The method includes executing a first task within the accelerated processing device (APD), monitoring for an interruption of the execution of the first task, and switching to a second task when an interruption is detected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 1, 2015
    Assignee: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
    Inventors: Robert Scott Hartog, Ralph Clay Taylor, Michael Mantor, Thomas Roy Woller, Kevin McGrath, Sebastien Nussbaum, Nuwan S. Jayasena, Rex McCrary, Philip J. Rogers, Mark Leather
  • Patent number: 9082041
    Abstract: The present invention enables a pattern identifying apparatus that calculates a feature amount and identifies a predetermined pattern, such as a face, based on the calculated feature amount to perform processing for reading a large volume of data at a high speed. To achieve this, a coprime relationship is established between an interval between adjoining processing windows arranged in an image and the number of memories in which the image is interleaved and stored, thereby always establishing an exclusive relationship between the memories from which data at the same position relative to reference points in the respective processing windows is read. It is thus possible to read data simultaneously, resulting in achievement of speedup.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 14, 2015
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Noriyasu Hashiguchi
  • Patent number: 9065860
    Abstract: A processor with on-chip memory including a plurality of physical memory banks is disclosed. The processor includes a method, and corresponding apparatus, of enabling multi-access to the plurality of physical memory banks. The method comprises selecting a subset of multiple access requests to be executed in at least one clock cycle over at least one of a number of access ports connected to the plurality of physical memory banks, the selected subset of access requests addressed to different physical memory banks, among the plurality of memory banks, and scheduling the selected subset of access requests, each over a separate access port.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 2, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2015
    Assignee: Cavium, Inc.
    Inventors: Jeffrey A. Pangborn, Gregg A. Bouchard, Rajan Goyal, Najeeb I. Ansari, Ahmed Shahid
  • Publication number: 20150143060
    Abstract: According to an example embodiment, a processor is provided including an integrated on-chip memory device component. The on-chip memory device component includes a plurality of memory banks, and multiple logical ports, each logical port coupled to one or more of the plurality of memory banks, enabling access to multiple memory banks, among the plurality of memory banks, per clock cycle, each memory bank accessible by a single logical port per clock cycle and each logical port accessing a single memory bank per clock cycle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 26, 2015
    Publication date: May 21, 2015
    Inventors: Gregg A. Bouchard, Rajan Goyal, Jeffrey A. Pangborn, Najeeb I. Ansari
  • Patent number: 9037761
    Abstract: Systems and methods are described including dynamically configuring a shared buffer to support processing of at least two video read streams associated with different video codec formats. The methods may include determining a buffer write address within the shared buffer in response to a memory request associated with one read stream, and determining a different buffer write address within the shared buffer in response to a memory request associated with the other read stream.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 5, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2015
    Assignee: INTEL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hiu-Fai R. Chan, Scott W. Cheng, Hong Jiang
  • Patent number: 9037809
    Abstract: Certain embodiments described herein include a memory module having a printed circuit board including at least one connector configured to be operatively coupled to a memory controller of a computer system. The memory module further includes a plurality of memory devices on the printed circuit board and a circuit including a first set of ports operatively coupled to at least one memory device. The circuit further includes a second set of ports operatively coupled to the at least one connector. The circuit includes a switching circuit configured to selectively operatively couple one or more ports of the second set of ports to one or more ports of the first set of ports. Each port of the first set and the second set comprises a correction circuit which reduces noise in one or more signals transmitted between the first set of ports and the second set of ports.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2015
    Assignee: Netlist, Inc.
    Inventors: Hyun Lee, Jayesh R. Bhakta, Jeffrey C. Solomon, Mario Jesus Martinez, Chi-She Chen
  • Patent number: 9032161
    Abstract: An apparatus for copying data to another apparatus including a receiving buffer, includes: a transmitting buffer including a plurality of areas for temporary storing data of the copying; and a processor for executing a process, including: receiving information indicative of an instantaneous vacant area of the receiving buffer of the another apparatus, the vacant area being capable of temporarily storing data that could be transmitted from the transmitting buffer, determining an area of the transmitting buffer that stores data to be transmitted subsequently in reference to the information of the vacant area, and transmitting data stored in the determined area of the transmitting buffer to the receiving buffer of the another apparatus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 28, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 12, 2015
    Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
    Inventors: Yoshinari Shinozaki, Shinichi Nishizono
  • Patent number: 9032162
    Abstract: An integrated circuit may include a memory controller serving as an interface between master processing modules and system memory. The master processing modules may provide memory access requests to the memory controller along with respective tag identifications. The memory controller may place the memory access requests in a queue for fulfillment. The memory controller may include a merging module that generates a memory access request to replace two or more memory access requests previously received from the master processing modules. The merging module may store information associated with the memory access requests that were merged and use the stored information to assign appropriate tag identifications to portions of data obtained from system memory when fulfilling the generated memory access request. The memory controller may include a verification module that can be used with test equipment to optimize the design of the master processing modules for improved memory access performance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 12, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 12, 2015
    Assignee: Altera Corporation
    Inventors: Ching-Chi Chang, Ravish Kapasi, Jeffrey Schulz, Michael H. M. Chu, Caroline Ssu-Min Chen, Chiakang Sung
  • Patent number: 9026746
    Abstract: A signal control device includes: a dual port RAM from or to which data signals are read and written at predetermined operation timings by first and second CPUs connected to two ports, respectively; an address collision detection unit detecting collision between addresses in which the first and second CPUs respectively read and write the data signal from and to the dual port RAM; a first storage unit storing the data signal read by the first CPU; a second storage unit storing the data signal read from the address in which the second CPU writes the data signal to the dual port RAM when the collision between the addresses is detected; and a switching unit switching a reading source outputting the data signal to the port to which the first CPU is connected and outputting the read data signal to the first CPU entering a readable state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2015
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Shinjiro Tanaka
  • Publication number: 20150106547
    Abstract: Apparatuses and methods are disclosed herein, including those that operate to receive memory requests from a processor over a high-speed communication interface and distribute the requests among a plurality of memory storage devices over lower-speed communication interfaces.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 14, 2013
    Publication date: April 16, 2015
    Applicant: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventor: Gregory A. King
  • Publication number: 20150100725
    Abstract: A system and method of improved communication in a storage network includes a storage node. The storage node includes a control unit and a plurality of local ports coupled to the control unit and configured to couple the storage node to a storage network. The control unit is configured to discover port addresses of other storage nodes in the storage network, select a first port pair including a first source port selected from the local ports and a first destination port selected from remote ports associated with the port addresses of a first one of the other storage nodes, open a first connection between the first source port and the first destination port, determine whether a less desirable notice associated with the first port pair is received, and when the less desirable notice is received, record the first port pair as being less desirable.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 7, 2013
    Publication date: April 9, 2015
    Applicant: DELL PRODUCTS L.P.
    Inventors: Narendran Ganapathy, Devanathan Krishnan
  • Patent number: 9003121
    Abstract: A multi-ported memory that supports multiple read and write accesses is described herein. The multi-ported memory may include a number of read/write ports that is greater than the number of read/write ports of each memory bank of the multi-ported memory. The multi-ported memory allows for at least one read operation and at least one write operation to be received during the same clock cycle. In the event that an incoming write operation is blocked by the at least one read operation, data for that incoming write operation may be stored in a cache included in the multi-port memory. That cache is accessible to both write operations and read operations. In the event than the incoming write operation is not blocked by the at least one read operation, data for that incoming write operation is stored in the memory bank targeted by that incoming write operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 7, 2015
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Weihuang Wang, Chien-Hsien Wu
  • Patent number: 8996822
    Abstract: Subject matter disclosed herein relates to memory devices comprising a memory array, a first port to interface with a memory controller directly or indirectly via another memory device, a second port to interface with yet another memory device, and a switch to selectively electrically connect the memory controller to a circuit path leading to the second port or to the memory array, wherein the switch may be responsive to a signal generated by the memory controller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2015
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Mostafa Naguib Abdulla, August Camber
  • Patent number: 8996795
    Abstract: A storage device comprising a non-volatile memory for storing data, and an input device that is operative to select an operating mode of the storage device prior to mounting the storage device, such that each operating mode represents a different type of storage device. A controller interfaces with the input device to establish the selected operating mode of the storage device once the storage device is mounted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 19, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2015
    Assignee: SanDisk IL Ltd.
    Inventors: Eitan Mardiks, Donald Ray Bryant-Rich
  • Publication number: 20150089164
    Abstract: In a multirank memory system in which the clock distribution trees of each rank are permitted to drift over a wide range (e.g., low power memory systems), the fine-interleaving of commands between ranks is facilitated through the use of techniques that cause each addressed rank to properly sample commands intended for that rank, notwithstanding the drift. The ability to perform such “microthreading” provides for substantially enhanced memory capacity without sacrificing the performance of single rank systems. This disclosure provides methods, memory controllers, memory devices and system designs adapted to these ends.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 20, 2012
    Publication date: March 26, 2015
    Inventors: Frederick A. Ware, Ely K. Tsern, Brian S. Leibowitz, Wayne Frederick Ellis, Akash Bansal, John Welsford Brooks, Kishore Ven Kasamsetty
  • Publication number: 20150089100
    Abstract: A method of operating a data transport system on a computing device is disclosed. The method comprises: writing outgoing data in a first memory space on a memory module of a computing device; detecting the outgoing data on the first memory space by a data channel component coupled to the memory module, wherein the first memory space is designated for external data transmission; and generating a transmission signal encoding the outgoing data, via the data channel component, for transmission from the memory module through an inter-device interconnect to an external memory module.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 24, 2013
    Publication date: March 26, 2015
    Inventors: Narsing Vijayrao, Jason Taylor
  • Patent number: 8990515
    Abstract: The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for aliasing buffers. Embodiment of the inventions supporting buffer aliasing through introduction of a level of indirection between a source program's buffer accesses and the target executable physical buffers, and binding the logical buffer accesses to actual physical buffer accesses at runtime. A variety of techniques for can be used supporting runtime aliasing of buffers, in a system which otherwise disallows such runtime aliasing between separately defined buffers in the target executable code. Binding of logical buffer accesses in the source program to the actual physical buffers defined in the target executable code is delayed until runtime.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 24, 2015
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Amit Kumar Agarwal, Weirong Zhu, Yosseff Levanoni
  • Patent number: 8990516
    Abstract: A multi-core processor system includes a memory controller that includes multiple ports and shared memory that includes physical address spaces divided among the ports. A CPU acquires from a parallel degree information table, the number of CPUs to which software that is to be executed by the multi-core processor system, is to be assigned. After this acquisition, the CPU determines the CPUs to which the software to be executed is to be assigned and sets for each CPU, physical address spaces corresponding to logical address spaces defined by the software to be executed. After this setting, the CPU notifies an address converter of the addresses and notifies the software to be executed of the start of execution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 24, 2015
    Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
    Inventors: Koichiro Yamashita, Fumihiko Hayakawa
  • Publication number: 20150067275
    Abstract: A single-port memory that operates in single-cycle dual-port mode has a logical capacity of N=k·m memory words and (k+1) single-port RAM having an overall physical capacity of (k+1)·m memory words. A status register holds words identifying which RAM bank has the last data at the ith address in the RAM banks and defining k status words for valid data among the (k+1) RAM banks. Write data is written to the write address of a valid RAM bank for a write operation in the absence of RAM bank read address contention. Write data is written to the write address of a different RAM bank that has no valid data for a write operation if there is contention with the RAM bank read address RADDR of a read operation. The status register is updated to identify the RAM bank of the write operation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 1, 2013
    Publication date: March 5, 2015
    Inventors: Aarul Jain, Rakesh Pandey, Rohit S. Patel
  • Patent number: 8972689
    Abstract: A storage processor identifies latency of memory drives for different numbers of concurrent storage operations. The identified latency is used to identify debt limits for the number of concurrent storage operations issued to the memory drives. The storage processor may issue additional storage operations to the memory devices when the number of storage operations is within the debt limit. Storage operations may be deferred when the number of storage operations is outside the debt limit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 2, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2015
    Assignee: Violin Memory, Inc.
    Inventor: Erik de la Iglesia
  • Publication number: 20150058580
    Abstract: A method for oversubscribing a host memory of a host running a virtual machine monitor (VMM), comprising, examining a virtual machine (VM) memory for a VM for metadata associated with the VM memory, the metadata maintained by a guest OS running on the VM, collecting the metadata for the VM memory, and managing the VM memory using the metadata for oversubscribing a host memory.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 3, 2013
    Publication date: February 26, 2015
    Applicant: GOOGLE INC.
    Inventors: Andres Lagar Cavilla, Adin Matthew Scannell, Timothy James Smith, Peter Feiner, Mahmood Mushfiq, David Richard Scannell, Jing Chih Su
  • Patent number: 8959291
    Abstract: Described embodiments provide a multi-port memory system that has a plurality of memory banks and an equal number of mapping memory banks, each one of the data memory banks corresponding to one of the mapping memory banks. The multi-port memory reads, from one of the mapping memory banks selected by a read logical bank number, a read physical bank number identifying which one of the data memory banks data is to be read. The memory system also calculates, from at least one physical bank number read from the mapping memory banks other than the mapping memory bank selected by the read logical bank number, a write physical bank number indicating which one of the data memory banks is to be written. The calculation uses a hash of the physical bank numbers, such as by using an Exclusive-OR. This arrangement allows for simultaneous read/write access of the memory with fixed latency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 17, 2015
    Assignee: LSI Corporation
    Inventor: Ting Zhou
  • Publication number: 20150032975
    Abstract: A method, apparatus and system for reducing memory latency is disclosed. In one embodiment, data between a host computer system and a memory is communicated via a port or a group of ports at the memory over multiple time intervals, wherein the host computer is coupled to the memory. Further, a command associated with the data is communicated between the host computer system and the memory via the port or the group of ports over a single time interval.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 16, 2014
    Publication date: January 29, 2015
    Inventors: Alan Ruberg, Seung-Jong Lee, Hyung Rok Lee, Daeyun Shim, Dongyun Lee, Sungjoon Kim, Anu Murthy
  • Publication number: 20150026397
    Abstract: Exemplary embodiments include a memory module including a plurality of connectors, at least one memory, at least one transmitter and at least one receiver. The connectors are configured to fit with a form factor of a memory socket on a server board. The memory is coupled with the connectors. The transmitter(s) are coupled with the memory. The transmitter(s) are configured to send a first plurality of signals from the memory module such that the first plurality of signals bypass the connectors. The receiver(s) are coupled with the memory. The receiver(s) are configured to receive a second plurality of signals to the memory module such that the second plurality of signals bypass the plurality of connectors.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 21, 2013
    Publication date: January 22, 2015
    Applicant: Samsung Electronics, Ltd.
    Inventor: Zhan (John) Ping
  • Publication number: 20150026418
    Abstract: A system and method for serial interface topologies is disclosed. A serial interface topology includes a replication device configured to receive control information from a controller interface. The replication device is configured to transmit two or more copies of substantially replicated control information to a device control interface. A data interface is configured to provide differential, point-to-point communication of data with the device controller interface.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 7, 2014
    Publication date: January 22, 2015
    Inventor: William F. Sauber
  • Patent number: 8937965
    Abstract: A switch unit, which is connected to one or more computers and one or more storage systems, comprises an update function for updating transfer management information (a routing table, for example). The storage system has a function for adding a virtual port to a physical port. The storage system migrates the virtual port addition destination from a first physical port to a second physical port and transmits a request of a predetermined type which includes identification information on the virtual port of the migration target to the switch unit. The transfer management information is updated by the update function of the switch unit so that the transfer destination which corresponds with the migration target virtual port is the switch port connected to the second physical port.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 8, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 20, 2015
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Norio Shimozono, Shintaro Ito
  • Patent number: 8935486
    Abstract: Memory access in a digital signal processing system is described. In one example, the digital signal processing system comprises a multi-port memory that is constructed from a memory interface connected to a number of single-port memory devices. The memory interface provides access ports that processors can use to access data stored on the single-port memory devices using a single address space. A processor can be connected to several access ports, and use these to request access to data at several different memory addresses at the same time. The digital signal processing system is configured such that the total number of single-port memory devices connected to the memory interface is a prime number greater than or equal to three. Because a prime number of memory devices are used, the likelihood of the data for the different memory addresses being on the same single-port memory device is minimised, increasing memory access speed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 13, 2015
    Assignee: Imagination Technologies, Limited
    Inventors: Adrian John Anderson, Gary Christopher Wass
  • Patent number: 8930643
    Abstract: Multi-port memory having an additional control bus for passing commands between ports have individual ports that can be configured to respond to a command received from an external control bus or to a command received from the additional control bus. This facilitates various combinations of ports to vary the bandwidth or latency of the memory to facilitate tailoring performance characteristics to differing applications.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 6, 2015
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Dan Skinner, J. Thomas Pawlowski
  • Patent number: 8930595
    Abstract: Described is a data switching device comprising a plurality of input ports, a plurality of output ports, a plurality of first conductive connectors, a plurality of second conductive connectors, a plurality of crosspoint regions, and a memory device at each crosspoint region. The first conductive connectors are in communication with the input ports. The second conductive connectors are in communication with the output ports. Each crosspoint region includes a first conductive connector and a second conductive connector. The memory device is coupled between the first conductive connector and the second conductive connector for exchanging data between the input ports and the output ports.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 21, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 6, 2015
    Assignee: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
    Inventor: David E. Mayhew
  • Patent number: 8930641
    Abstract: An integrated circuit may have a memory controller that interfaces between master processing modules and system memory. A scheduling module may be used to handle memory access requests received from multiple master modules. The scheduling module may arrange the received memory access requests in an order for fulfillment with system memory. A bypass module may be used to provide a low latency bypass path that allows memory access requests to bypass the scheduling module. The bypass module may include an eligibility detection module that identifies memory access requests eligible for scheduler bypassing, a port selection module that provides a low latency bypass path for the eligible memory access requests, multiplexing circuitry that selects between memory access requests provided from the low latency bypass path and from the output of the scheduling module, and a masking module that prevents redundant fulfillment of memory access requests.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 6, 2015
    Assignee: Altera Corporation
    Inventors: Ravish Kapasi, Jeffrey Schulz, Ching-Chi Chang, Caroline Ssu-Min Chen
  • Patent number: 8930642
    Abstract: Embodiments of a multi-port memory device may include a plurality of ports and a plurality of memory banks some of which are native to each port and some of which are non-native to each port. The memory device may include a configuration register that stores configuration data indicative of the mapping of the memory banks to the ports. In response to the configuration data, for example, a steering logic may couple each of the ports either to one or all of the native memory banks or to one or all of the non-native memory banks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 20, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 6, 2015
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Robert Walker, Dan Skinner
  • Patent number: 8918594
    Abstract: Apparatus and methods disclose techniques to control access to a memory array. The memory array can be accessed by either a first interface or a second interface. A switch register grants privilege levels, which control access. For example, a high privilege level can grant access and a low privilege level can deny access. A status register indicates when an interface with a high privilege level is busy accessing the memory array.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 23, 2014
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Giulio Albini, Emanuele Confalonieri, Francesco Mastroianni
  • Patent number: 8918615
    Abstract: An embodiment of this invention is an information storage system comprising a plurality of storage systems connected to be able to communicate. Each of the plurality of storage systems includes default storage system identification information which is the same to the plurality of storage systems, common volume identification information for uniquely identifying volumes provided by the plurality of storage systems to a host computer among the plurality of storage systems, and a controller configured to return the default storage system identification information to the host computer in response to a request from the host computer and to process a read or write request to a volume accompanying the common volume identification information from the host computer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 23, 2014
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Akihisa Nagami, Koh Nakamichi, Yasunori Kaneda, Hirokazu Ikeda, Masayuki Yamamoto
  • Patent number: 8914649
    Abstract: A computing device (101, 400, 500) has a processor (401) and at least one peripheral device port (106, 107, 108, 109, 410-1 to 410-5). The processor (401) is configured to selectively power the at least one peripheral device port (106, 107, 108, 109, 410-1 to 410-5) when the processor (401) is in a sleep state (302, 303, 304, 305, 306) according to at least one setting stored by firmware (405) of the processor (401).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 16, 2014
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Chi W. So, Binh T. Truong, Luke Mulcahy
  • Publication number: 20140359199
    Abstract: A multi-processor computer architecture incorporating distributed multi-ported common memory modules wherein each of the memory modules comprises a control block functioning as a cross-bar router in conjunction with one or more associated memory banks or other data storage devices. Each memory module has multiple I/O ports and the ability to relay requests to other memory modules if the desired memory location is not found on the first module. A computer system in accordance with the invention may comprise memory module cards along with processor cards interconnected using a baseboard or backplane having a toroidal interconnect architecture between the cards.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 28, 2013
    Publication date: December 4, 2014
    Applicant: SRC Computers, LLC.
    Inventors: Jon M. Huppenthal, Timothy J. Tewalt, Lee A. Burton, David E. Caliga
  • Publication number: 20140351526
    Abstract: Techniques are disclosed relating to processing data in a storage controller. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving data at a storage controller of a storage device. The method further includes processing data units of the data in parallel via a plurality of write pipelines in the storage controller. The method further includes writing the data units to a storage medium of the storage device. In some embodiments, the method may include inserting header information into the data for a plurality of data units before processing, and the header information may include sequence information. In some embodiments, writing the data units may include writing according to a sequence determined prior to processing the data units.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 16, 2014
    Publication date: November 27, 2014
    Applicant: Fusion-io, Inc.
    Inventor: James G. Peterson
  • Patent number: 8892825
    Abstract: A method, apparatus and system for reducing memory latency is disclosed. In one embodiment, data between a host computer system and a memory is communicated via a port or a group of ports at the memory over multiple time intervals, wherein the host computer is coupled to the memory. Further, a command associated with the data is communicated between the host computer system and the memory via the port or the group of ports over a single time interval.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 18, 2014
    Assignee: Silicon Image, Inc.
    Inventors: Alan Ruberg, Seung-jong Lee, Hyung Rok Lee, Daeyun Shim, Dongyun Lee, Sungjoon Kim, Anu Murthy
  • Patent number: 8878860
    Abstract: An embodiment of the present invention is a technique to control memory access. An address pre-swizzle circuit conditions address bits provided by a processor according to access control signals. A data steering circuit connects to N sub-channels of memory to dynamically steer data for a memory access type including tiled and untiled memory accesses according to the access control signals, the conditioned address bits, and sub-channel identifiers associated with the N sub-channels. The tiled memory access includes horizontally and vertically tiled memory accesses. An address post-swizzle circuit generates sub-channel address bits to the N sub-channels using the conditioned address bits and according to the access control signals and the sub-channel identifiers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 4, 2014
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: James Akiyama, William H. Clifford
  • Patent number: 8880812
    Abstract: A serial attached small computer systems interface (SAS) module includes a first port with (i) a first physical layer device and (ii) a first port control module. The first physical layer device communicates with a plurality of initiators. The first port control module comprises a first world wide number (WWN) table. The first WWN table comprises connection rates of the plurality of initiators during communication with the first physical layer device. Each of the connection rates is a last connection rate of a respective one of the plurality of initiators.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 4, 2014
    Assignee: Marvell International Ltd.
    Inventors: James A. Walch, Leon A. Krantz
  • Publication number: 20140310482
    Abstract: A system and method for providing high-speed memory operations is disclosed. The technique uses virtualization of memory space to map a virtual address space to a larger physical address space wherein no memory bank conflicts will occur. The larger physical address space is used to prevent memory bank conflicts from occurring by storing a second encoded copy of data in a multi-port XOR memory bank.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 5, 2013
    Publication date: October 16, 2014
    Applicant: Memoir Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Sundar Iyer, Shang-Tse Chuang
  • Patent number: 8862831
    Abstract: A method and apparatus to facilitate shared pointers in a heterogeneous platform. In one embodiment of the invention, the heterogeneous or non-homogeneous platform includes, but is not limited to, a central processing core or unit, a graphics processing core or unit, a digital signal processor, an interface module, and any other form of processing cores. The heterogeneous platform has logic to facilitate sharing of pointers to a location of a memory shared by the CPU and the GPU. By sharing pointers in the heterogeneous platform, the data or information sharing between different cores in the heterogeneous platform can be simplified.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 6, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 14, 2014
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Yang Ni, Rajkishore Barik, Ali-Reza Adl-Tabatabai, Tatiana Shpeisman, Jayanth N. Rao, Ben J. Ashbaugh, Tomasz Janczak