Patents Assigned to Icera, Inc.
  • Patent number: 8196215
    Abstract: A circuit and method for securing against non-reset of a device associated with the circuit, the circuit comprising: a first register for holding a first multi-bit value and to produce a first multi-bit output value related to the first multi-bit value; a second register for holding a second multi-bit value and to produce a second multi-bit output value related to the second multi-bit value; an inverter means arranged to invert only one of the first and second output values; and a comparator arranged to compare the inverted and non-inverted output values to produce a comparator output, wherein the first and second registers are arranged such that they are subject to substantially the same operational conditions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2012
    Assignee: Icera Inc.
    Inventor: Kevin Dewar
  • Patent number: 8193044
    Abstract: A method of manufacturing an integrated circuit (IC), comprising: defining a plurality of continuous active areas; forming conducting lines extending over the active areas; and using the conducting lines as a mask, introducing dopant into the active areas. Connections are provided between doped regions and conducting lines to form first and second circuit portions, at least one active area being continuous between those portions. In that active area, connections are provided between doped regions and conducting lines to form a pair of diode-connected transistors in reverse bias to one another between the first and second circuit portions, connected so as to leave a shared, unconnected doped region between the pair. The present invention also relates to a corresponding IC.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 24, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2012
    Assignee: Icera Inc.
    Inventor: Trevor Monk Kenneth
  • Patent number: 8189653
    Abstract: Techniques are described for optimizing processing facilities of a receiver in a wireless communication environment, taking into consideration processing performance set against the computing resources and/or power consumption required to obtain the processing performance. An embodiment of a radio receiver is described that includes a channel equalization means arranged to receive digital samples of an incoming signal and to generate an equalized output, said channel equalization means including means for processing said digital samples in accordance with an equalizer algorithm utilizing a set of equalizer parameters. The receiver can include means for estimating at least one parameter of a channel over which the signal has been received, and means for selecting at least one of said equalizer parameters based on at least one of said estimated channel parameters. Related methods, algorithms, and computer program products are also described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 18, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2012
    Assignee: Icera, Inc.
    Inventors: Carlo Luschi, Simon Huckett, Simon Walker, Steve Allpress, Philip Jones
  • Publication number: 20120122407
    Abstract: A method, program and apparatus for transmitting from a transmitter to a receiver over a channel using a transmit diversity scheme. The method comprises: receiving power-related information fed back from the receiver to the transmitter; and at the transmitter, using the power-related information to generate channel state information. The method further comprises using the generated channel state information to control for subsequent transmission to the receiver from the multiple transmit antennas of the transmitter.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 26, 2010
    Publication date: May 17, 2012
    Applicant: ICERA INC.
    Inventors: Steve Allpress, Abdelkader Medles
  • Publication number: 20120121033
    Abstract: A method of generating a reliability indicator for decoding an encoded signal transmitted from a transmitter to a receiver via a wireless channel subject to fading. The method comprises: receiving symbols of the encoded signal; generating a reliability indicator for decoding at least some of the symbols selectively based on one or both of a statistical model representing additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) in the encoded signal and a statistical model representing fading of the encoded signal; and selecting the statistical model based on signal characteristics of the wireless channel.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 22, 2010
    Publication date: May 17, 2012
    Applicant: ICERA INC.
    Inventor: Steve Allpress
  • Publication number: 20120093207
    Abstract: The invention provides a method of manufacturing a user equipment comprising a wireless modem, a method of activating a user equipment as a wireless modem, and a corresponding server and user equipment. A processor is produced for executing wireless modem code to operate the processor as a wireless modem, the processor having a writeable, non-volatile memory for storing the wireless modem code but being produced with at least a substantive portion of said wireless modem code not installed on said memory or otherwise, thus rendering the processor inoperative as a wireless modem. The processor is assembled into a user equipment and supplied to an end-user still without the substantive portion of wireless modem code installed. In response to an indication from the end-user requesting activation of the user equipment as a wireless modem, at least said substantive portion of wireless modem code is then distributed to the end-user for installation on the memory the user equipment's processor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 13, 2010
    Publication date: April 19, 2012
    Applicant: ICERA INC.
    Inventor: Nigel Toon
  • Patent number: 8150435
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a method of transmitting channel quality data for channels in a wireless communication system, and to a corresponding receiver and transmitter. In one embodiment, the method includes determining a plurality of channel quality indicators for a corresponding plurality of frequency intervals and transmitting information about channel quality indicators in the form of differentially encoded slope data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 3, 2012
    Assignee: Icera Inc.
    Inventors: Carlo Luschi, Tarik Tabet, Abdelkader Medles, Nallepilli Ramesh
  • Publication number: 20120076189
    Abstract: Wireless receiver and method of operating a wireless receiver in a wireless communication network for: receiving a signal, the received signal comprising data containing at least one symbol from a symbol alphabet, the symbol alphabet consisting of complex values that define a direction in the complex plane, the received signal further comprising interference; measuring the variance of a first component of the received signal that is perpendicular to the defined direction in the complex plane; estimating the interference power of the received signal using the measured variance of the first component of the received signal; estimating a total power of the received signal; estimating the power of the at least one symbol of the received signal by subtracting the estimated interference power from the estimated total power of the received signal; and based on the estimated interference power and the estimated power of the at least one symbol of the received signal, performing at least one of the steps of: processin
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 25, 2010
    Publication date: March 29, 2012
    Applicant: ICERA INC.
    Inventors: Carlo Luschi, Abdelkader Medles, Jonathan Wallington, Gang Wang
  • Publication number: 20120057650
    Abstract: A method for limiting peak-to-average power of a signal transmitted from a power amplifier. The method comprises: applying a pulse-shape filter to a first signal, thereby generating a second signal being a filtered version of the first signal; and outputting the second signal for transmission from a power amplifier. The method further comprises: applying each of a plurality of predictor filters to a respective instance of the first signal, each predictor filter approximating the application of the pulse-shape filter to the first signal based on a different respective set of filter coefficients, and each thereby generating a respective third signal. The method also further comprises determining an indicator of amplitude of each of the third signals, selecting the indicator corresponding to the largest of those amplitudes, generating a modifier based on the selected indicator, and using the modifier to limit the first signal prior to applying the pulse-shape filter.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2011
    Publication date: March 8, 2012
    Applicant: ICERA INC.
    Inventors: Stephen Felix, Steve Allpress
  • Patent number: 8126451
    Abstract: Methods are described of processing signals received over a wireless communication channel by a receiver in a wireless cellular network. A method includes receiving a sequence of signal samples. The received sequence of samples can be used to estimate at least one channel coefficient for at least one transmission path. An estimate of an orthogonality factor can be generated based on said at least one channel coefficient. An estimate of the disturbance can be generated based on said at least one estimated channel coefficient. An estimate of input signal power can be generated using the received sequence. An estimate of cell geometry can be generated using the estimated orthogonality factor, estimated disturbance, and estimated input signal power. The estimate of cell geometry can be used in processing received data samples. Related methods of processing digital samples are described. Related receivers are also described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 18, 2008
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2012
    Assignee: Icera, Inc.
    Inventors: Carlo Luschi, Steve Allpress, Philip Jones
  • Publication number: 20120033750
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is a method, device, network and computer program product for transmitting data in transport blocks from the device on an uplink channel of the network. Information indicative of a current condition on the uplink channel is determined. Based on the determined information, a transport block size for use in transmitting data on the uplink channel is adapted and data is transmitted from the device on the uplink channel in transport blocks having the adapted transport block size.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 2, 2011
    Publication date: February 9, 2012
    Applicant: ICERA INC.
    Inventor: Neda Nikaein
  • Publication number: 20120023352
    Abstract: A method of controlling the clock frequency of a processor executing software in a plurality of active periods, the method comprising, for each period: supplying to a power management application at least one parameter defining an execution profile for the period having high frequency and low frequency operating intervals; the power management application determining, based on said profile, granted clock frequencies for the high and low frequency operating intervals; the processor supplying to the power management application at the commencement of a period an operating cycle requirement for the period; the power management application determining, for each period, based on the operating cycle requirement, the length of the low frequency interval; and controlling the clock frequency in each interval based on the granted clock frequencies determined by the power management application.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 29, 2009
    Publication date: January 26, 2012
    Applicant: ICERA INC.
    Inventors: Peter Cumming, Hlond Marcin
  • Publication number: 20120001270
    Abstract: A method of manufacturing an integrated circuit (IC), comprising: defining a plurality of continuous active areas; forming conducting lines extending over the active areas; and using the conducting lines as a mask, introducing dopant into the active areas. Connections are provided between doped regions and conducting lines to form first and second circuit portions, at least one active area being continuous between those portions. In that active area, connections are provided between doped regions and conducting lines to form a pair of diode-connected transistors in reverse bias to one another between the first and second circuit portions, connected so as to leave a shared, unconnected doped region between the pair. The present invention also relates to a corresponding IC.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 24, 2008
    Publication date: January 5, 2012
    Applicant: ICERA INC.
    Inventor: Trevor Monk Kenneth
  • Publication number: 20120005471
    Abstract: An integrated circuit is disclosed herein. In one embodiment, the integrated circuit includes: a processor; a plurality of external pins operatively coupled to the processor; and a permanently written memory operatively coupled to the processor, the memory having a plurality of regions each storing one or more respective boot properties for booting the processor. The processor is programmed to select one of the regions in dependence on an indication received via one or more of the external pins, to retrieve the one or more respective boot properties from the selected region, and to boot using the one or more retrieved boot properties.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 8, 2011
    Publication date: January 5, 2012
    Applicant: Icera Inc.
    Inventors: Peter Cumming, Stephen Felix
  • Publication number: 20110305262
    Abstract: A method and corresponding receiver product, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of data streams over a wireless multiple-input-multiple-output data channel, whereby each data stream is received at all of a plurality of receive antennas from all of a plurality of transmit antennas with a respective weighting having been applied to each stream as transmitted from each different transmit antenna; receiving a common pilot signal over a common pilot channel; receiving an indication of the weightings; extracting the individual data streams from the plurality received at the receive antennas; and using the weightings and the common pilot signal together with information regarding the extracted data streams to calculate, for each of the streams, an estimate of signal power relative to interference from the one or more others of said data streams.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 18, 2009
    Publication date: December 15, 2011
    Applicant: ICERA INC.
    Inventor: Abdelkader Medles
  • Publication number: 20110283136
    Abstract: The present invention provides a method of protecting against errors in a boot memory, the method comprising initiating booting of a processor by executing primary boot code from a primary boot memory, and based on the execution of the primary boot code: accessing a data structure comprising a plurality of redundant portions of boot information stored on a secondary boot memory; performing an error check on a plurality of the portions to determine whether those portions contain errors and, based on the error checks, to identify a valid portion; and booting the processor using the valid portion of boot information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 20, 2011
    Publication date: November 17, 2011
    Applicant: Icera Inc.
    Inventors: David Alan Edwards, Joe Woodward
  • Publication number: 20110249770
    Abstract: A transmitter architecture having a single signal path or hardware to cover WCDMA/EDGE/GSM applications, and requires no SAW at the transmitter outputs. The transmitter architecture allows for a transmit convergence feature. A passive mixer with unique driver and furthermore using native devices available from the CMOS process for the mixer cores enables low voltage and low power design, low output noise and high linearity. A digital variable gain amplifier has the capability to cover wide output dynamic range operated from low supply voltage and interfaced digitally with the baseband circuit without DAC. A single transformer is used to combine the outputs from the WCDMA/EDGE and GSM drivers and subsequently convert the differential signal paths into a single-ended signal. RF switches are used to divert the output from the transformer to different bands and applications.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 8, 2009
    Publication date: October 13, 2011
    Applicant: ICERA INC.
    Inventors: Abdellatif Bellaouar, See Taur Lee, Sher Jiun Fang, Sherif H.K. Embabi, Tajinder Manku
  • Patent number: 8024557
    Abstract: An integrated circuit comprising: a processor; a plurality of external pins operatively coupled to the processor; and a permanently written memory operatively coupled to the processor, the memory having a plurality of regions each storing one or more respective boot properties for booting the processor. The processor is programmed to select one of the regions in dependence on an indication received via one or more of the external pins, to retrieve the one or more respective boot properties from the selected region, and to boot using the one or more retrieved boot properties.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2011
    Assignee: Icera, Inc.
    Inventors: Peter Cumming, Stephen Felix
  • Patent number: 8009777
    Abstract: A method of processing a signal in a wireless digital communications system, wherein a source of disturbance affects differently at least first and second portions of a received signal carrying user data and/or control data, the method comprising: identifying the second portion of the received signal, most affected by the source of disturbance; generating a first estimate of the disturbance (PI) for received samples in the first, less affected portion of the received signal; generating a second estimate of the disturbance (PI(SCH)) for received samples in the second portion of the received signal; and using the first and second disturbance estimates to generate reliability information for the data bits corresponding to the received signal samples, for use in a decoding process to estimate the transmitted data bits.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2011
    Assignee: Icera, Inc.
    Inventors: Edward Andrews, Carlo Luschi, Jonathan Wallington
  • Patent number: 7996711
    Abstract: The present invention provides a method of protecting against errors in a boot memory, the method comprising initiating booting of a processor by executing primary boot code from a primary boot memory, and based on the execution of the primary boot code: accessing a data structure comprising a plurality of redundant portions of boot information stored on a secondary boot memory; performing an error check on a plurality of the portions to determine whether those portions contain errors and, based on the error checks, to identify a valid portion; and booting the processor using the valid portion of boot information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 26, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2011
    Assignee: Icera Inc.
    Inventors: David Alan Edwards, Joe Woodward