Abstract: An electronic device includes a transaction host, a first peripheral, a second peripheral, a first access controller connected to the first peripheral, a second access controller connected to the second peripheral, and an access control register storing a first access control identifier for the first peripheral and a second access control identifier for the second peripheral. The first access controller to receive an access request for access to the first peripheral by the transaction host, perform an access determination for the first peripheral based at least on the first access control identifier for the first peripheral, and allow or prevent the transaction host access to the first peripheral based on the access determination.

Abstract: Apparatus and methods of automatically trimming a PCB-based LC circuit. The apparatus may comprise an interface to a printed circuit board (PCB). The PCB may include a PCB inductor and a PCB capacitor to form an LC circuit. The LC circuit may have an LC circuit frequency. The apparatus may comprise a variable capacitor communicatively coupled to the interface and configured to adjust an effective capacitance of the LC circuit.

Abstract: Physical layer devices and related methods for determining Bit Error Rates (BERs) and correcting errors in signals received through shared transmission media of wireless local area networks are disclosed. A physical layer device is configured to identify coding violations in received signal, determine a rate of the coding violations in the signal, and estimate a BER of the signal to be equal to the determined rate of the coding violations. A physical layer device is configured to invert a half symbol immediately preceding or immediately following a coding violation based, at least in part, on signal integrities of the half symbol immediately preceding and the half symbol immediately following the coding violation to correct a bit error.

Abstract: A metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor includes a bottom electrode cup, an insulator, and a top electrode. The bottom electrode cup includes a laterally-extending bottom electrode cup base and a bottom electrode cup sidewall extending upwardly from the laterally-extending bottom electrode cup base. The insulator includes an insulator cup formed in an opening defined by the bottom electrode cup, and a rounded insulator flange extending laterally outwardly and curving upwardly from the insulator cup, the rounded insulator flange covering an upper surface of the bottom electrode cup sidewall. The top electrode is formed in an opening defined by the insulator cup. The top electrode is insulated from the upper surface of the bottom electrode cup sidewall by the rounded insulator flange.

Abstract: A metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor includes a bottom electrode cup, an insulator, and a top electrode. The bottom electrode cup includes a laterally-extending bottom electrode cup base and a bottom electrode cup sidewall extending upwardly from the laterally-extending bottom electrode cup base. The insulator includes an insulator cup formed in an opening defined by the bottom electrode cup, and an insulator flange extending laterally outwardly from the insulator cup sidewall and extending laterally over an upper surface of the bottom electrode cup sidewall. The top electrode is formed in an opening defined by the insulator cup. The top electrode is insulated from the upper surface of the bottom electrode cup sidewall by the insulator flange.

Abstract: A multi-mode converter using iterative average current mode pulse width modulation (PWM) control is provided. The converter may include a current sense amplifier configured to output a current sense signal over a present switching cycle based on an inductor current through an inductor, a voltage error amplifier configured to output an error voltage based on a difference between a reference voltage and an output voltage, and a PWM controller. The PWM controller may include an error voltage modifier circuit configured to selectively output the error voltage or a modified error voltage based on a mode signal, and an iterative average current control circuit configured to generate a PWM signal based on the output from the error voltage modifier circuit, the current sense signal over the present switching cycle and a current sense signal over a previous switching cycle that precedes the present switching cycle.

Abstract: An integrated circuit device may include a multi-material toothed bond pad including (a) an array of vertically-extending teeth formed from a first material, e.g., aluminum, and (b) a fill material, e.g., silver, at least partially filling voids between the array of teeth. The teeth may be formed by depositing and etching aluminum or other suitable material, and the fill material may be deposited over the array of teeth and extending down into the voids between the teeth, and etched to expose top surfaces of the teeth. The array of teeth may collectively define an abrasive structure. The multi-material toothed bond pad may be bonded to another bond pad, e.g., using an ultrasonic or thermosonic bonding process, during which the abrasive teeth may abrade, break, or remove unwanted native oxide layers formed on the respective bond pad surfaces, to thereby create a direct and/or eutectic bonding between the bond pads.

Abstract: An integrated circuit chip (die) may include a force mitigation system for reducing or mitigating under-pad stresses typically caused by wire bonding. The IC die may include wire bond pads and a force mitigation system formed below each wire bond pad. The force mitigation system may include a “shock plate” (e.g., metal region), a sealing layer located above the shock plate, and a force mitigation layer including an array of sealed voids between the metal region and the sealing layer. The sealed voids in the force mitigation layer may be defined by forming openings in an oxide dielectric layer and forming a non-conformal sealing layer over the openings to define an array of sealed voids. The force mitigation system may mitigate stresses caused by a wire bond on each wire bond pad, which may reduce or eliminate wire-bond-related damage to semiconductor devices located in the under-pad regions of the die.

Abstract: An apparatus may include a pipeline circuit configured to process packets and an authentication engine configured to authenticate packets and to provide an authentication signal to the pipeline circuit based on whether packets have been authenticated. The apparatus may further include a control circuit configured to route a given incoming packet to both the authentication engine and to a bypass path. The bypass path may be configured to provide a copy of the given incoming packet to the pipeline circuit to bypass the authentication engine.

Abstract: A computer system includes a non-transitory computer-readable memory to store (a) a vector table including an exception vector pointing to an exception handler and (b) a vector fail address of a vector fetch bus error handler, and a processor to identify an exception, initiate an exception vector fetch in response to the identified exception to read the exception vector from the vector table, identify a vector fetch bus error associated with the exception vector fetch, access the vector fail address of the vector fetch bus error handler in response to the vector fetch bus error, and execute the vector fetch bus error handler.

Abstract: An article of manufacture includes a non-transitory machine-readable medium. The medium includes instructions. The instructions, when read and executed by a processor, cause the processor to determine that a first input instruction in a code stream to be executed is to perform a read-modify-write operation, determine that the first input instruction is to target a memory location, and, based on a determination that the first input instruction is to perform the read-modify-write operation and the determination that the first input instruction is to target the memory location, convert the first input instruction to a second input instruction to target the memory location with a mask to cause an atomic operation to implement the read-modify-write operation.

Abstract: An article of manufacture includes a non-transitory machine-readable medium. The medium includes instructions that cause a processor to execute a shift instruction. The shift instruction is to cause a source data in memory to be shifted left or shifted right. The shift instruction is to include a source parameter and a bit size parameter. The processor is to execute the shift instruction through a shift of a first source word of the source data by the bit size parameter to yield a first intermediate word, a shift of a second source word of the source data by the bit size parameter to yield a second intermediate word and a first set of shifted-out bits, and through execution of a logical OR operation on the first intermediate word and the first set of shifted-out bits to yield a first result word.

Abstract: A system includes non-transitory computer readable memory and a processor. The non-transitory computer readable memory stores a current processor interrupt priority level and a current disable interrupt control (DISICTL) interrupt priority level. The processor to update the current processor interrupt priority level based on respective interrupt priority levels associated with respective exceptions, and update the current DISICTL interrupt priority level based on a respective DISICTL instruction, wherein the respective DISICTL instruction specifies a respective user-definable DISICTL interrupt priority level. The processor determines a highest interrupt priority level between the current processor interrupt priority level and the current DISICTL interrupt priority level, and apply the highest interrupt priority level during execution of respective code.

Abstract: An article of manufacture includes a non-transitory machine-readable medium. The medium includes instructions that cause a processor to execute a shift instruction. The shift instruction is to cause a source data in memory to be shifted left or shifted right. The shift instruction is to include a source parameter and a bit size parameter. The processor is to execute the shift instruction through a shift of a first source word of the source data by the bit size parameter to yield a first intermediate word, a shift of a second source word of the source data by the bit size parameter to yield a second intermediate word and a first set of shifted-out bits, and through execution of a logical OR operation on the first intermediate word and the first set of shifted-out bits to yield a first result word.

Abstract: Reduced complexity decoders with improved error correction and related systems, methods, and apparatuses are disclosed. An apparatus includes an input terminal and a processing circuitry. The input terminal is provided at a physical layer device to receive, from a network, a low density parity check (LDPC) frame including bits. The bits correspond to log-likelihood ratio (LLR) messages indicating probabilities that the bits have predetermined logic values. The processing circuitry is to saturate LLR values of a portion of the LLR messages corresponding to known bits of the LDPC frame to a highest magnitude value represented by the LLR messages, and pass the LLR messages between check nodes and message nodes. The message nodes correspond to the bits. The check nodes correspond to parity check equations of a parity check matrix.

Abstract: A damascene method for manufacturing a thin film resistor (TFR) module is provided. A pair of heads are formed spaced apart from each other. A dielectric region is deposited over the pair of heads, and an opening extending over both heads is formed in the dielectric region. A TFR layer is deposited over the dielectric region and extending into the opening to define a cup-shaped TFR layer structure including (a) a laterally-extending TFR element base conductively connected to both heads and (b) vertical ridges extending upwardly from the laterally-extending TFR element base. A high density plasma (HDP) ridge removal process is performed to remove or shorten the vertical ridges from the cup-shaped TFR layer structure, thereby defining a TFR element having removed or shorted vertical ridges. The removal or shortening of the vertical ridges may improve the temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) characteristic of the TFR element.

Abstract: Compact timestamps and related methods, systems and devices are described. An encoder is configured to generate compact timestamps of the disclosure by sampling states of linear feedback shift registers (LFSRs). A decoder may be configured to determine timing information responsive to the compact timestamps.

Abstract: A low-resistance thick-wire integrated inductor may be formed in an integrated circuit (IC) device. The integrated inductor may include an elongated inductor wire defined by a metal layer stack including an upper metal layer, middle metal layer, and lower metal layer. The lower metal layer may be formed in a top copper interconnect layer, the upper metal layer may be formed in an aluminum bond pad layer, and the middle metal layer may comprise a copper tub region formed between the aluminum upper layer and copper lower layer. The wide copper region defining the middle layer of the metal layer stack may be formed concurrently with copper vias of interconnect structures in the IC device, e.g., by filling respective openings using copper electrochemical plating or other bottom-up fill process. The elongated inductor wire may be shaped in a spiral or other symmetrical or non-symmetrical shape.

Abstract: Disclosed embodiments relate, generally, to improved data reception handling at a physical layer (PHY). Some embodiments relate to end of line systems that include legacy media access control (MAC) and PHY that implement improved data reception handling disclosed herein. The improved data reception handling improves the operation of the end of line systems, and the MAC more specifically, and in some cases to comply with media access tuning protocols implemented at the physical layer.

Abstract: An apparatus includes a database with device profiles, and a device programmer. The device programmer includes instructions. The instructions, when read and executed by a processor, cause the device programmer to identify a device identifier of an electronic device. The device programmer is further caused to, based upon the device identifier, access device data from the database. The device programmer is further caused to, based upon the device data, determine an area of memory of the electronic device that can be written. The device programmer is further caused to, based on the determination of the area of memory of the electronic device that can be written, write data to the area of memory.