Patents Assigned to Broadcom
  • Patent number: 7729683
    Abstract: Aspects of a system for a power amplifier with an on-package matching transformer may include a DC/DC converter that enables generation of a bias voltage level within an IC die based on an amplitude of an input signal to a PA circuit within the IC die. The bias voltage level may be applied to a transformer, which is external to the IC die but internal to an IC package containing the IC die and/or a circuit board containing the IC package. One or more amplifier bias voltage levels, derived from the bias voltage level applied to the transformer, may be applied to the PA circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 1, 2010
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventor: Ahmadreza Rofougaran
  • Patent number: 7729276
    Abstract: Aspects of a method and system for tunneling MACSec packets through non-MACSec-enabled nodes are provided. In this regard, aspects of the invention may be utilized for transmitting MACSec Ethernet packets over MACSec and/or non-MACSec-enabled network nodes. In one embodiment of the invention, additional header information may be inserted into a MACSec packet before transmitting the MACSec packet to a non-MACSec-enabled node. Accordingly, aspects of the invention may remove the additional header information from a packet received from a non-MACSec-enabled node to distinguish the packets comprising inserted additional header information, which may comprise a distinguishing Ethertype.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 1, 2010
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventor: Bora Akyol
  • Patent number: 7729671
    Abstract: Aspects of a method and system for enhancing efficiency by modulating power amplifier (PA) gain are presented. Aspects of the system may comprise a PA gain modulator that enables modification of an amplitude of a digital baseband signal. A baseband processor may enable computation of a first gain value based on the modification. The baseband processor may enable computation of a second gain value based on the first gain value. A PA may enable generation of an RF output signal based on the modified digital baseband signal and the second gain value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 1, 2010
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Ali Afsahi, Vikram Magoon, Arya Behzad
  • Patent number: 7730227
    Abstract: A mechanism and method for redefining an application specific integrated circuit's I/O bus structure in real-time. The mechanism includes an address map block, a state machine block, and a bus arbitration block. At initialization, the address map is configured to divide the address space into regions and type of bus structure. When an I/O access is requested by a client (e.g., CPU, DMA controller, etc.), the request is mapped into a region and type of bus structure by the address map block. The region and type of bus structure is used by the state machine. The state machine determines the syntax and protocol for the region and type of bus. The state machine signals the bus arbitration block to grant I/O bus ownership when it is available. Once ownership is granted, I/O bus pins are defined and access is granted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 18, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 1, 2010
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventor: Rocco J. Brescia, Jr.
  • Publication number: 20100128407
    Abstract: A capacitor sharing surge protection circuit for protecting multiple ports from harmful energy surges, such as electrostatic discharge (ESD) and cable discharge events (CDE), is provided. The protection circuit includes a plurality of diodes with respective cathodes and anodes. Each anode of the plurality of diodes is coupled to one of the plurality of ports. A bypass capacitor is coupled between the cathodes of the plurality of diodes and ground. In an embodiment, a bulk capacitor is further coupled between the cathodes of the plurality of diodes and ground.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 28, 2010
    Publication date: May 27, 2010
    Applicant: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventor: Louis MAGGIOLINO
  • Publication number: 20100131780
    Abstract: There is provided a method of managing power utilization for use by a first communication system having a first communication mode and a second communication mode, for communication over a PHY connection through a cable connecting the two systems. The method comprises establishing the PHY connection with the second communication system, detecting interoperability of the two systems in the first communication mode, determining a length of the cable connecting the first communication system to the second communication system, selecting a mode based on the length of the cable, if the detecting detects interoperability of the first communication system and the second communication system in the first communication mode, selecting the second communication mode as the mode, if the detecting does not detect interoperability of the first communication system and the second communication system in the first communication mode, communicating data using the PHY connection through the cable in the mode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 22, 2010
    Publication date: May 27, 2010
    Applicant: BROADCOM CORPORATION
    Inventor: James Muth
  • Publication number: 20100128403
    Abstract: An ESD protection system providing extra headroom at an integrated circuit (IC) terminal pad. The system includes an ESD protection circuit having one or more first diodes coupled in series between the supply voltage and terminal pad, and a second diode coupled to ground. One or more third diodes are coupled in series between the terminal pad and second diode, and are configured to permit a voltage on the interconnection nodes between the one or more third diodes and second diode different from ground. The one or more third diodes include an n+ on an area of P-substrate. A deep N-well separates the area of P-substrate from a common area of P-substrate, which is coupled to ground. The allowable signal swing at the terminal pad is increased to greater than supply voltage plus 1.4 V. The ESD protection circuit is useful for, among other things, relatively low supply voltage ICs.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 17, 2009
    Publication date: May 27, 2010
    Applicant: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Hung-Sung Li, Laurentiu Vasiliu
  • Publication number: 20100128655
    Abstract: A communication system is described. In one embodiment, the communication system comprises a mobile station having a transmitter to transmit packets wirelessly according to a protocol and multiple repeaters communicably coupled with the mobile station. Each of the plurality of repeaters receives one or more packets of the wirelessly transmitted packets from the mobile station. Each of the repeaters receives an indication of which of the wirelessly transmitted packets were received without errors by other repeaters and a received signal strength for those packets. The communication system also includes a switch coupled to the repeaters. Each of the repeaters forwards to the switch each packet of the wirelessly transmitted packets that each repeater had received without errors at a received signal strength higher than any other repeater.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 29, 2010
    Publication date: May 27, 2010
    Applicant: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventor: Harry BIMS
  • Publication number: 20100125989
    Abstract: According to one exemplary embodiment, a method for adjusting geometry of a capacitor includes fabricating a first composite capacitor residing in a first standard cell with a first set of process parameters. The method further includes using a second standard cell having substantially same dimensions as the first standard cell. The method further includes using a capacitance value from the first composite capacitor to adjust a geometry of a second composite capacitor residing in the second standard cell, wherein the second composite capacitor is fabricated with a second set of process parameters. The geometry of the second composite capacitor can be adjusted to cause the second composite capacitor to have a capacitance value substantially equal to the capacitance value from the first composite capacitor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 26, 2008
    Publication date: May 27, 2010
    Applicant: BROADCOM CORPORATION
    Inventors: Peter Huang, Ming-Chun Chen
  • Publication number: 20100128662
    Abstract: Dynamic real-time quality management of packetized communications in a network environment. Packetized communications are monitored by and exchanged between wireless Access Points (APs) and wireless terminals or by quality monitoring modules located within network segments or at network vertices. The processing unit analyzes the packetized communications to identify communication signatures associated with the packetized communications. The processor then uses these signatures to identify network impediments to the exchange of the packetized communications. These impediments may take the form of coding problems in which case an appropriate coding scheme is employed by the programmable COder/DECoder (CODEC) to convert incoming packetized communications to incoming user communications, and outgoing user communications to outgoing packetized communications. These impediments may also take the form of communication problems along and between the various network segments.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 22, 2010
    Publication date: May 27, 2010
    Applicant: BROADCOM CORPORATION
    Inventor: Richard A. Bye
  • Publication number: 20100131824
    Abstract: Handling burst error events with interleaved Reed-Solomon (RS) codes. A received signal, that has undergone convolutional interleaving sometime before, is received from a burst noise affected communication channel. The signal undergoes convolutional deinterleaving and the codewords generated there from undergo appropriate successive cyclic shifting to arrange burst noise affected symbols of various codewords into at least some common symbol locations. For example, at least two codewords have burst noise affected symbols in common symbol locations. An ensemble decoder jointly decodes multiple codewords during a same time period (i.e., processes multiple codewords simultaneously). By processing multiple codewords simultaneously, the ensemble decoder has greater error correction capability than a decoder that processes a single codeword at a time.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 25, 2009
    Publication date: May 27, 2010
    Applicant: BROADCOM CORPORATION
    Inventor: Thomas J. Kolze
  • Publication number: 20100130138
    Abstract: Protocol adaptation layer for wireless communications. Communication devices that include one or more radio modules operable in accordance with multiple communication protocols establish communications using one communication protocol and then switch to another communication protocol. This switching to another communication protocol may be performed based on a variety of factors including effectuating communications of higher throughput, supporting uni-directional communications vs. bi-directional communications, or any other desired factor. In some embodiments, various communication devices include two radio modules that are each implemented to operate in accordance with one particular communication protocol. Alternatively, a multi-protocol capable radio module may support and operate in accordance with more than one communication protocol. Examples of possible communication protocols include those compliant with Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11, and/or 802.15.3c.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 3, 2009
    Publication date: May 27, 2010
    Applicant: BROADCOM CORPORATION
    Inventors: Saishankar Nandagopalan, Christopher J. Hansen
  • Patent number: 7724846
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for mitigating interference in a satellite signal receiver is described. The satellite signal receiver receives satellite signals from a plurality of satellites. In one example, data transmission of a wireless transceiver operating in proximity to the satellite signal receiver is monitored. A control signal is transmitted to the satellite signal receiver upon occurrence of data transmission from the wireless transceiver. Signal integration within the satellite signal receiver is then gated is response to the control signal. In another example, one or more values of satellite signal samples are selected from a plurality of possible values. A percentage of satellite signal samples having the one or more selected values is monitored over a predefined period. Signal integration within the satellite signal receiver is gated in response to the percentage exceeding a predefined threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2003
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2010
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventor: Charles Abraham
  • Patent number: 7724979
    Abstract: The invention refers to an apparatus and a method for reducing random noise in a sequence of digital video frames comprising the following steps: 1. for each of the pixels (center pixel) in a frame a set of adjacent pixels is defined; 2. for each of the adjacent pixels the difference of their values in the current frame and the previous frame is calculated, whereby the value of the center pixel is omitted; 3. each difference value is shifted right for a predefined number of bits; 4. the square of the difference value is added to an activity value of that center pixel; 5. if the activity value remains below a predefined threshold value, then a weighting factor depending from activity value is calculated and 6. the value of the center pixel is set to a weighted value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2010
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: David Drezner, Gideon Kojokaro
  • Patent number: 7724763
    Abstract: A wireless communication system is adapted for compatible inter-operation of a plurality of devices operating in accordance with a plurality of protocols. The wireless communication system includes a first group of one or more subscriber stations that interface with a base station in accordance with a first protocol and a second group of one or more subscriber stations that interface with the base station in accordance with a second protocol. The base station includes a protocol processor that identifies transmissions from the first and second groups of subscriber stations and routes transmissions from the first group of subscriber stations to a first processor operating in accordance with the first protocol and routes transmissions from the second group of subscriber stations to a second processor operating in accordance with the second protocol.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 8, 2007
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2010
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: John O. Limb, Dolors Sala, Ajay Chandra V. Gummalla, Fred A. Bunn
  • Patent number: 7724307
    Abstract: Aspects of noise reduction in digital video may comprise monitoring at least one of memory usage and memory bandwidth usage of memory utilized to process video data. The aspect may further comprise adaptively adjusting filtering of the video data according to the monitoring. At least one of impulse filtering, temporal filtering, and spatial filtering may be utilized for the filtering of the video data. At least one of the impulse filtering, the temporal filtering, and the spatial filtering may be adaptively adjusted based on the monitoring. Furthermore, at least one of motion information and edge information may be estimated from the video data for utilizing in at least one of the impulse filtering, the temporal filtering, and the spatial filtering. At least one of the estimated motion information and the estimated edge information may be adaptively adjusted based on the monitoring.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 2, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2010
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Wade K. Wan, Jason C. Demas, Darren Neuman
  • Patent number: 7725636
    Abstract: A method to detect an event between a data source and a data sink using a trigger core is described herein. The method comprises monitoring control lines and an associated data stream for a programmable pattern, wherein the pattern is one or more of a condition, state or event. The method further comprises generating an indication by updating a status register, sending an interrupt or asserting a control line upon a pattern match.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 5, 2007
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2010
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventor: Scott Krig
  • Patent number: 7724760
    Abstract: A method for selecting a queue for service across a shared link. The method includes classifying each queue from a group of queues within a plurality of ingresses into one tier of a number “N” of tiers. The number “N” is greater than or equal to 2. Information about allocated bandwidth is used to classify at least some of the queues into the tiers. Each tier is assigned a different priority. The method also includes matching queues to available egresses by matching queues classified within tiers with higher priorities before matching queues classified within tiers with lower priorities.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 12, 2003
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2010
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Hari Balakrishnan, Srinivas Devadas, Arvind Mithal
  • Patent number: 7724715
    Abstract: A communication system in which multiple protocols and proxy services are executed by an access point. In one embodiment of the invention, GVRP and GMRP registrations are combined in a single packet when a wireless device roams to a different VLAN. In addition, outbound GVRP and GMRP multicast messages are handled by an access point (also referred to as a GVRP and GMRP “gateway”) such that the wireless device is not burdened with the associated computational overhead. In a further embodiment, a wireless device may dynamically switch between a VLAN-aware state and a VLAN-unaware state depending on the nature of a detected access point. For example, if a relevant access point supports GVRP, the wireless device may operate as a VLAN terminal. If a wireless device is not attached to an access point with a matching VLAN ID, the wireless device sends and receives VLAN tagged frames.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2010
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventor: Robert C. Meier
  • Patent number: 7724279
    Abstract: A system and method for providing access to a video display for multiple devices. Various aspects of the present invention may comprise receiving, at a video display system, a first video data signal through a first data communication interface and a second video data signal through a second data communication interface. A processor module may process the first and second video data signals to generate video information of first and second display windows in a composite display. For example, the processor module may transform and translate video information to fit display windows. The processor module may, for example, generate an output video signal comprising information of the first window and information of the second window. Such a signal may, for example, be utilized to drive an output display showing the first and second windows. Various aspects may also provide method steps and apparatus for controlling aspects of the displayed windows.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2010
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Jeyhan Karaoguz, James D. Bennett