Patents Assigned to PMC-Sierra
  • Patent number: 8611473
    Abstract: For power efficiency, it can be desirable to use a 1-bit ADC or slicer to receive a wired data transmission. A plurality of N samples per baud period are taken. N can be, for example, 4 or more. At least a portion of the samples are included in a window of samples, the size of which is based at least partly on earlier determined values of prior symbols. For example, a polynomial function or other numerical function can be embedded in a lookup table to map previously determined data bits to an address, and the address can be used to control an input of multiplexers to vary the size of the window. The value for a current symbol is determined based at least partly on one or more values within the window of samples.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 17, 2013
    Assignee: PMC-Sierra, Inc.
    Inventor: William D. Warner
  • Patent number: 8601346
    Abstract: A nonvolatile memory controller performs a data stripe operation on data blocks by processing a collection of commands. The nonvolatile memory controller includes command processing units, each of which processes a command of the data stripe operation to store a data block into a nonvolatile memory device. A parity calculator in the nonvolatile memory controller receives the data blocks of the data stripe operation by receiving a sequence of data blocks. The parity calculator generates a parity block in a page frame as the parity calculator receives the sequence of the data blocks. A command processing unit in the nonvolatile memory controller determines when the parity calculator has completed generating the parity block and writes the parity block to a nonvolatile memory device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2013
    Assignee: PMC-Sierra US, Inc.
    Inventors: Peter Z. Onufryk, Inna Levit
  • Patent number: 8601169
    Abstract: A method and apparatus, such as multi-engine controller that can be used to control multiple data processing engines in a command based IO processing system, such as a storage controller, to solve to the problem of scaling the data processing rate to match the advances in the IO interface data rates, including a method of identifying dependencies among various tasks queued up in the system and scheduling tasks out-of-order to avoid head of line blocking, a method to buffer and reorder the completed tasks such that the task output order is the same as that in the input to the system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2013
    Assignee: PMC-Sierra US, Inc.
    Inventors: Chetan Paragaonkar, Kuan Hua Tan
  • Patent number: 8599913
    Abstract: A data regeneration device regenerates a digital signal in a low-speed pass-through mode of operation, performs an upstream link equalization procedure on an upstream data link in an equalization mode of operation, performs a downstream link equalization procedure on a downstream data link in the equalization mode of operation, and regenerates the digital signal in a high-speed pass-through mode of operation. The data regeneration device transitions seamlessly from the low-speed pass-through mode of operation to the equalization mode of operation in compliance with a communication protocol. Moreover, the data regeneration device synchronizes completion of the upstream link equalization procedure with completion of the downstream link equalization procedure so that the data regeneration device transitions seamlessly from the equalization mode of operation to the high-speed pass-through mode of operation in compliance with the communication protocol.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 1, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2013
    Assignee: PMC-Sierra US, Inc.
    Inventors: David Alan Brown, Dzung Tran
  • Patent number: 8588228
    Abstract: A nonvolatile memory controller includes a host controller interface, processors, a message networks and a data network. The host controller interface includes a command fetch module, command assembly buffers, and a command dispatch module. The command fetch module retrieves nonvolatile memory commands from a host processing unit. The command assembly buffers store the nonvolatile memory commands retrieved from the host processing unit. The command dispatch module generates request message packets including the nonvolatile memory commands. The message network routes the request message packets to the processors. The processors process the nonvolatile memory commands in the request message packets for controlling operation of the nonvolatile memory controller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2013
    Assignee: PMC-Sierra US, Inc.
    Inventors: Peter Z. Onufryk, Jayesh Patel, Ihab Jaser, Ganesh T. Seshan
  • Patent number: 8587339
    Abstract: A multi-mode driver with multiple transmitter types including a first transmitter coupled to a transmission channel and operative to output a signal for transmission on the channel and a second transmitter coupled to the channel and operative to output the signal for transmission on the channel, the second transmitter having at least one different output characteristic than the first transmitter. During the output of the signal from one of the transmitters, the other of the transmitters is biased with a bias supply voltage that prevents voltage breakdown of one or more transistors of the other transmitter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2013
    Assignee: PMC-Sierra US, Inc.
    Inventor: Samuel R. Johnson
  • Patent number: 8582701
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for reducing sensitivity to nonlinearities in the receiver of a digital communications system are disclosed. One aspect can be referred to as a Post-Distortion Decision Feedback Equalizer (PDFE). A gain stage is often implemented as a variable gain amplifier (VGA), and can introduce significant nonlinearities, a problem exacerbated by signals with a large peak-to-average ratio (PAR). One embodiment provides feed forward information from the VGA regarding its status to a DFE, and the DFE adjusts its filtering based on the provided information. The advantages are also applicable to fixed-gain amplifiers and to transversal filters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2013
    Assignee: PMC-Sierra, Inc.
    Inventors: Matthew W. McAdam, Anthony Eugene Zortea
  • Patent number: 8559439
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for queue-ordering commands in multi-engines, multi-queues and/or multi-flows environment is provided. Commands from single/multiple queues and multi-flows are processed by multi-engines with different processing time and/or out of order, which breaks sequential order of commands from same input queue and commands are distributed across multiple engines' output buffer after processing. Processed commands are stored in dedicated command output buffer associated with each engine temporarily. The processed commands are re-ordered while writing out. Also commands can be scheduled to idle engines to achieve maximum throughput, thus utilizing the engines in an optimal manner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2013
    Assignee: PMC-Sierra US, Inc.
    Inventors: Anil B. Dongare, Kuan Hua Tan
  • Patent number: 8554968
    Abstract: A nonvolatile memory controller processes a nonvolatile memory command and generates a completion status for the nonvolatile memory command. The nonvolatile memory controller transmits the completion status to a host processing unit for storage in a completion queue of the host processing unit. An interrupt manager in the nonvolatile memory controller determines the completion queue contains an unprocessed completion status and generates an interrupt message packet. The nonvolatile memory controller transmits the interrupt message packet to the host processing unit for triggering an interrupt in the host processing unit and alerting the host processing unit to the unprocessed completion status.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2013
    Assignee: PMC-Sierra, Inc.
    Inventors: Peter Z. Onufryk, Jayesh Patel, Ihab Jaser
  • Patent number: 8547140
    Abstract: Disclosed is a high-swing voltage-mode transmitter or line driver. The transmitter can operate over a wide range of supply voltages. Increasing the available output swing merely involves increasing the supply voltage; the circuit adapts to maintain the desired output impedance. This allows for a tradeoff between output amplitude and power consumption. Another advantage of the proposed architecture is that it compensates for process, voltage, and temperature (PVT) and mismatch variations so as to keep rise and fall times matched. This feature reduces common-mode noise and hence EMI in systems in which the transmitter is used.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 1, 2013
    Assignee: PMC-Sierra, Inc.
    Inventors: Julien Faucher, Michael Ben Venditti
  • Patent number: 8542708
    Abstract: A method and apparatus are described for signaling the phase and frequency of constant bit rate (CBR) clients over a network or fabric. An incoming CBR client stream is segmented into variable sized segments, such as packets or general framing protocol (GFP) frames, and is regenerated on the other side of a fabric or network phase-locked to the incoming stream. Regeneration of the CBR client clock is based solely on segment sizes, and in the case of GFP frames, the rate of the SONET Path or OTN ODUk stream carrying the GFP frames. No overhead bytes are inserted into the GFP frames to convey phase and frequency information. The method disclosed is important for reducing the cost and complexity of communications networks by allowing CBR clients to be transported with low jitter and wander without requiring the source and sink network elements to be phase-locked to a common stratum reference.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 24, 2013
    Assignee: PMC-Sierra US, Inc.
    Inventors: Winston Ki-Cheong Mok, Karl Scheffer
  • Publication number: 20130243418
    Abstract: A system and method for Passive Optical Networks (PON) providing integration (cross-correlation) of powersave and fiber protection, optionally with encryption, facilitating the successful operation and/or benefits that can be gained when operating a PON system with these features. A major problem with power save is the detection, since both the OLT and the ONUs rely on a valid signal in order to detect fiber failure. However, the OLT may not detect this for sleeping ONUs, and an ONU in Tx/Rx sleep-mode, may not detect a fiber failure, and may not be aware of the OLTs switchover. In addition to solving the problem of combined fiber protection and power savings, a solution is also needed for providing security for this combination. A current embodiment is a system and method for Passive Optical Networks (PON) providing integration (cross-correlation) of powersave and fiber protection, optionally with encryption.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 7, 2013
    Publication date: September 19, 2013
    Applicant: PMC-Sierra Israel Ltd.
    Inventors: Zachi HARAMATY, Elan Rohekar, Barak Perlman, Raziel Gabe
  • Patent number: 8533389
    Abstract: A method and system for controlling multiple client access to cache memory and a single CAM device. Each client has a corresponding integrity controller in communication with the CAM device and all the other integrity controllers associated with the other clients in the system. Each integrity controller monitors states of the other clients, and inhibits its respective client from executing any operation when a common lookup index is detected during a co-pending operation with a first client. Once the operations of the first client are completed, its integrity controller signals the integrity controller of other clients to exit their inhibit or hold states, thereby allowing the other clients to resume their operations. Another advantage of the integrity controller is that its algorithms also prevents multiple host memory fetches of the same key, thereby saving time and improving system performance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 2009
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2013
    Assignee: PMC-Sierra, Inc.
    Inventors: Gregg Goyins, Jonathan Bradley Sadowsky
  • Patent number: 8533546
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides systems and methods for testing an integrated circuit or device under test (DUT). A DUT of the present invention has a plurality of scan chains, a plurality of shift register elements each associated with a respective one of the scan chains, and a programmable switch matrix to configure shift register elements of a subset of the plurality of shift register elements to cause one shift register element of the subset to receive an interleaved test sequence, and to cause the interleaved test sequence to be shifted to other shift register elements in the subset, and to input deinterleaved test sequences to scan chains associated with the subset.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2013
    Assignee: PMC-Sierra US, Inc.
    Inventors: Kenneth William Ferguson, Steven Yu Peng Ng, Bradley Burke, Michel Duchesneau, Aaron John Dennis, Philip Lyon Northcott, Kenneth David Wagner
  • Patent number: 8526431
    Abstract: A method for registration of multiple entities belonging to a specific optical network unit (ONU). In one embodiment, the multiple entity registration method comprises checking by an optical line terminal (OLT) if a registration request message received from the specific ONU belongs to a certain grant, and based on the check result, registering an entity as either a first or as an additional entity of the specific ONU. In another embodiment, the method comprises checking by an OLT of a reserved value of a flags field inside a registration request message, and based on the check result, registering an entity as either a first or as an additional entity of the specific ONU. The knowledge by an OLT that multiple entities belong to a specific ONU is used for grant optimization and packet data flow optimization.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 2, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2013
    Assignee: PMC-Sierra Israel Ltd.
    Inventors: Onn Haran, Ariel Maislos, Lior Khermosh
  • Patent number: 8526815
    Abstract: A method and protocol for dynamic upstream bandwidth allocation to prevent congestion in an aggregation system consisting of multiple PON OLT devices that share a common Service Network Interface (SNI). The method allows OLT devices to communicate real time user traffic load information, and for each OLT to self-throttle upstream throughput based on overall system view of traffic load. The method allows the available SNI bandwidth to be dynamically allocated to OLT ports while maintaining fairness per ONT (user). The method is implemented as a peer-to-peer protocol and does not require central controller resources. The method can be implemented in existing PON systems using software. The method saves the need for expensive dedicated traffic manager devices on the OLT aggregation point.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 19, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2013
    Assignee: PMC-Sierra Israel Ltd.
    Inventors: Gal Adler, Israel Ben Shahar
  • Patent number: 8498533
    Abstract: In a communication system in which data is transferred by packets, a ranging method in which a receiver, in a given ranging window, periodically compares received data with expected data to find a match. The periodic comparison includes searching for known preamble and/or delimiter sequences of ranging packets and involves timeouts for each search period. In case a match between the known sequences and received sequences is not found and the respective timeout is exceeded, the search and comparison process is restarted and continues until a global timeout is exceeded.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 30, 2013
    Assignee: PMC-Sierra Israel Ltd.
    Inventor: Raanan Ivry
  • Publication number: 20130188946
    Abstract: A system for redundancy in Ethernet passive optical networks (EPONs) facilitates fast recovery from failure (less than 50 msec), path redundancy of the fiber optic network, and location redundancy of the OLTs. An optical networking unit (ONU) in a normal state monitors input communications, and when the input communications are quiet for a predetermined minimum length of time, the ONU transitions to a lenient state in which: the ONU accepts old and new security keys; upon receiving a packet: the ONU updates an ONU timestamp based on the packet's timestamp; and the ONU transitions to the normal state of operation. While the ONU is in the lenient state if a packet is not received for a predetermined given length of time the ONU transitions to a deregistered state. In this system, main and standby OLTs do not require synchronization of security parameters or synchronization for differences in fiber lengths.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 12, 2013
    Publication date: July 25, 2013
    Applicant: PMC-Sierra Israel Ltd.
    Inventor: PMC-Sierra Israel Ltd.
  • Patent number: 8495301
    Abstract: A scatter gather cache system and method are provided, which increase performance of scatter-gather DMA operations by reducing the time taken by the DMA engine to perform a logical to physical address translation. This is done primarily by two-dimensional caching of scatter-gather elements of selected scatter-gather lists using a novel indexing, line swapping and replacement methodology. The cache can also include a context victim table (CVT) for storing scatter-gather list contexts from evicted cache entries and also allows for pre-fetching of SGL elements from Scatter-Gather Lists (SGL). It also provides coherency support when there are multiple instances of the cache accessing the same memory space.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2013
    Assignee: PMC-Sierra US, Inc.
    Inventors: Praveen Alexander, Cheng Yi, Tao Zhong, David J. Clinton, Gary Nichols
  • Patent number: 8483226
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for increasing the number of addressable node ports within one arbitrated loop are provided in a way that allows all node ports be able to participate in loop operations. The method also adds destination filtering based on the source address to determine which of the similarly addressed node ports a message is destined for. A unique arbitrated loop physical address is acquired by a connectivity device. A shared arbitrated loop physical address is acquired by each drive in a set of drives attached to the connectivity device. The shared arbitrated loop physical address is part of a set of shared arbitrated loop physical addresses that are shared among a plurality of connectivity devices. The drive can be uniquely addressed using a pairing of the shared loop physical address associated with the drive and the unique arbitrated loop physical address associated with the selected connectivity device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 9, 2013
    Assignee: PMC-Sierra US, Inc.
    Inventor: April I. Bergstrom