Patents Assigned to STMicroelectronics Belgium NV
  • Patent number: 7844962
    Abstract: A code patching device is provided for use with a processor having a read-only memory which stores instruction code and a further memory for storing patch code. A plurality of patch address registers each store an address, in the read-only memory, at which a patch is to be performed. A comparator compares the address of the read-only memory that is being accessed by the processor with the addresses stored in the registers. A control unit selects between code from the read-only memory or patch code from the further memory depending on the comparison. The code patching device can replace, on-the-fly, erroneous lines of code from the read-only memory by corrected ones. During an initialization process the patch code is loaded into the further memory and the registers are loaded with the addresses which require patching.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 2005
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2010
    Assignee: STMicroelectronics Belgium NV
    Inventors: Rudolph Alexandre, Vincent Charlier, Tiana Rahaga, Yves Vandersmissen
  • Patent number: 7733990
    Abstract: A receive path in a receiver including circuitry for deriving a first stream of first digitized samples from a received analog signal at a first sampling rate, and at least one interpolating filter in parallel with the first stream of first digitized samples for generating at least a second stream of digitized samples at the first sampling rate but offset with respect to the first stream by a fraction of a sample time period.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2010
    Assignee: STMicroelectronics Belgium NV
    Inventor: Pietro Capretta
  • Patent number: 7692484
    Abstract: An active RC filter has an op-amp and a biasing circuit arranged to bias the op-amp to set a gain bandwidth product of the op-amp according to a desired pole frequency of the filter. The biasing circuit is operable according to an output of an RC calibration circuit. The op-amp can be an OTA transconductance amplifier, and the biasing circuit can be arranged to maintain a constant product of R and transconductance at an input of the transconductance amplifier. This biasing can help to set the pole frequency more accurately and can thus reduce the need for bandwidth margin to be provided to allow for manufacturing process variations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2006
    Date of Patent: April 6, 2010
    Assignee: STMicroelectronics Belgium NV
    Inventors: Steven Terryn, Dieter Joos
  • Patent number: 7688923
    Abstract: A receiver having circuitry for generating first digitized samples from a received analog signal at a first sampling rate, e.g. an ADC. An interpolating filter is used to generate second digitized samples which are estimates of samples obtainable by sampling the received analog signal at a second sample rate lower than the first sampling rate, second digitized samples being output at the first sampling rate and including at least one unusable sample. A circuit is provided for generating a signal for controlling components of the receive path downstream of the interpolation filter to prevent processing of the unusable second digitized samples.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 30, 2010
    Assignee: STMicroelectronics Belgium NV
    Inventor: Pietro Capretta
  • Publication number: 20090265483
    Abstract: A memory system for use with a master-slave type bus such as an AHB bus has a memory, a bus interface to allow memory access from the bus, and a direct memory access interface to allow memory access from a DMA controller without occupying the bus. The system can reduce occupancy of the bus, it can allow dedicated DMA access protocols faster than the bus protocol to be used, and can remove or reduce the need for bus arbitration and associated circuitry and delays. An arbiter can arbitrate between the memory accesses and give priority to DMA accesses.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 12, 2009
    Publication date: October 22, 2009
    Applicant: STMicroelectronics Belgium NV
    Inventor: Rudolph Alexandre
  • Patent number: 7543009
    Abstract: An M-point Fractional Fourier is described using several 2M-points traditional Fourier transforms. The signal path is fed through a series of blocks including a first multiplier, a zero pad, an FFT, a second multiplier, an IFFT, a first half element, and a third multiplier. The first and third multipliers have as their other inputs a value exp(?j?n2?) for n=0:M?1, derived from the clock offset signal represented by ?.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 24, 2003
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2009
    Assignee: STMicroelectronics Belgium NV
    Inventor: Fabio Pisoni
  • Publication number: 20090116437
    Abstract: Wireless transceiver apparatus for operating in a part of the RF spectrum which is shared with a co-located second wireless transceiver apparatus. The first wireless transceiver apparatus includes, a wireless transceiver unit; an arbitration interface for interfacing with an arbitration entity which arbitrates access to the shared part of the RF spectrum between the first wireless transceiver apparatus and the second wireless transceiver apparatus; wherein the arbitration interface is adapted to signal time periods when the wireless transceiver unit is operational, or requests to be operational; and wherein the arbitration interface is adapted to signal data about and commands to the first wireless transceiver apparatus during other time periods. An enhanced arbitration entity is adapted to automatically detect and switch between two modes or interference reduction, e.g. a first interference reduction means such as AFH, a second interference reduction means such as PTA.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 3, 2008
    Publication date: May 7, 2009
    Applicant: STMicroelectronics Belgium NV
    Inventors: Rudolph Alexandre, Wouter Aerts, Martin Ryder, Viktor Belokonskiy
  • Publication number: 20090086711
    Abstract: A circuit for processing a packet based signal received over a Bluetooth radio link has a correlator to detect at least part of the access code. A correlator controller, reconfigures the correlator according to a timing of the access code, to detect at least part of the EDR synchronization sequence, and a demodulator demodulates the payload according to the detection. The correlator has an input signal register, a buffer for a sequence of at least part of the wanted signal values, and a series of comparators arranged to compare input signal values with corresponding ones of the wanted signal values at more than one offset. By such dual use of the same correlator, the receiver can be made more cost effective.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 28, 2007
    Publication date: April 2, 2009
    Applicant: STMicroelectronics Belgium NV
    Inventors: Pietro Capretta, Viktor Belokonskiy, Alberto Gozzi
  • Patent number: 7482953
    Abstract: A signal resampler carries out a time domain interpolation of an input signal for compensating for frequency offset, such as found in an ADSL system. A sample selector interpolator carries out part of the interpolation and a second, e.g. polynomial interpolator carries out the rest of the interpolation. The time interval between samples being interpolated, can be effectively divided between a sample selector interpolator and a small second, e.g. polynomial interpolator. The complexity of the second, e.g. polynomial interpolator can be reduced or its accuracy increased if it is effectively interpolating over a much smaller time interval. The sample selector interpolator can be an oversampling arrangement, and enable the order of the second, e.g. polynomial interpolator to be reduced. Selected ones of the oversampled samples are fed to the second, e.g. polynomial interpolator to keep the operating frequency lower. A chain of upsamplers can be used to generate the oversampled samples.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2004
    Date of Patent: January 27, 2009
    Assignee: STMicroelectronics Belgium NV
    Inventors: Wouter Aerts, Roland Hug
  • Patent number: 7460587
    Abstract: A clock offset compensation arrangement may include a fractional interpolator for applying a trigonometric interpolation to a sampled input signal according to a clock offset signal. It uses transform-based processing in the frequency domain. Compared to a polynomial type interpolation it may be easier to implement, and may achieve a closer approximation to an ideal interpolation. It may reduce the effects of non-linear type errors introduced by truncation of higher powers. The arrangement may be applied to receivers or transmitters of multi-carrier modems, as well as other applications which use rate adaptation or synchronization.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 24, 2003
    Date of Patent: December 2, 2008
    Assignee: STMicroelectronics Belgium NV
    Inventor: Fabio Pisoni
  • Publication number: 20080270622
    Abstract: The present invention discloses a system and a methodology for enhancing performance during wireless communications by reducing system latency, MIPS requirements and power consumption. The present invention discloses a system and method of wireless data communication in which part of upper layer stack processing is performed on a controller to relieve a host processor of some data intensive operations. After the initial connection establishment phase in which the controller retrieves certain information required for data transmission and stores the same locally, the data source provides data directly to the controller without routing the data through the host. The host is relieved of the data processing that needs to be done while the data is being transferred. Hence, the overall latency of the system is improved because of the optimal routing of data traffic.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 28, 2008
    Publication date: October 30, 2008
    Applicants: STMicroelectronics Pvt. Ltd., STMicroelectronics Belgium NV
    Inventors: Naresh Kumar Gupta, Rajat Maheshwari, Vincent Charlier, Gerrit Vermeire
  • Publication number: 20080220730
    Abstract: A radio transmission method and a radio transmitter device for radio transmission of an audio signal from an audio device to a radio receiver wherein an audio signal is received from the audio device, and an RF signal is transmitted simultaneously which is modulated with the audio signal on each of a set of at least two different RF channels. Within each of the transmitted RF signals, information identifying at least the other RF channels in the set of RF channels is included.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 7, 2008
    Publication date: September 11, 2008
    Applicant: STMicroelectronics Belgium NV
    Inventor: Marc Borremans
  • Publication number: 20080200124
    Abstract: A device has a radio transmitter for a first radio link such as a Bluetooth link, having a coexistence controller arranged to communicate with a co-located other radio transmitter for another radio link, to enable both radio links to use potentially conflicting transmission frequencies. A link monitor monitors the first radio link, according to an output from the coexistence controller. By making the link monitor dependent on the coexistence controller, it can distinguish between transmission losses caused by the coexistence interface, and those caused by other effects, to reduce the risk of a data rate controller unnecessarily reducing a transmission rate if transmission losses caused by the coexistence control are misinterpreted as a drop in link quality.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 15, 2008
    Publication date: August 21, 2008
    Applicant: STMicroelectronics Belgium NV
    Inventors: Pietro Capretta, Vincent Charlier
  • Publication number: 20080111590
    Abstract: A buffer circuit buffers incoming signals, from a local oscillator generator to a mixing circuit and has a push-pull circuit having two inputs, a first being coupled to a first incoming signal, and a second of the inputs being coupled to one of the buffered versions of the incoming signals, having a phase related to that of the first incoming signal. By coupling a second input to a buffered version rather than to the incoming signal, the load presented to the preceding circuit can be halved, while maintaining reduced power consumption. By using as a second input, a signal which is phase related to the first incoming signal, the normal operation of the push-pull circuit can be maintained. The incoming signals from the LO generator can be differential IQ signals and the buffered version of the further incoming signal be in phase with the first incoming signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 14, 2006
    Publication date: May 15, 2008
    Applicant: STMicroelectronics Belgium NV
    Inventor: Steven Terryn
  • Publication number: 20080100373
    Abstract: An active RC filter has an op-amp and a biasing circuit arranged to bias the op-amp to set a gain bandwidth product of the op-amp according to a desired pole frequency of the filter. The biasing circuit is operable according to an output of an RC calibration circuit. The op-amp can be an OTA transconductance amplifier, and the biasing circuit can be arranged to maintain a constant product of R and transconductance at an input of the transconductance amplifier. This biasing can help to set the pole frequency more accurately and can thus reduce the need for bandwidth margin to be provided to allow for manufacturing process variations.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 26, 2006
    Publication date: May 1, 2008
    Applicant: STMicroelectronics Belgium NV
    Inventors: Steven Terryn, Dieter Joos
  • Publication number: 20070156975
    Abstract: A serial in random out memory circuit has a number of memory cells integrated with write control circuitry for writing a sequence of data inputs to sequential locations in the memory cells. Read control circuitry is integrated to receive address signals from an external device and provide a random access read output from the memory cells, mapped into an address range of the external device. Compared to circuits using discrete components and conventional RAM chips, the integrated SIRO can enable some of the circuitry or external software to be dispensed with and so reduce costs or increase performance. The memory cells can be arranged in a number of blocks, selectable one at a time for mapping to the external device address range.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 11, 2006
    Publication date: July 5, 2007
    Applicant: STMicroelectronics Belgium NV
    Inventor: Vincent Himpe
  • Publication number: 20070037511
    Abstract: A receiver having circuitry for generating first digitized samples from a received analog signal at a first sampling rate, e.g. an ADC. An interpolating filter is used to generate second digitized samples which are estimates of samples obtainable by sampling the received analog signal at a second sample rate lower than the first sampling rate, second digitized samples being output at the first sampling rate and including at least one unusable sample. A circuit is provided for generating a signal for controlling components of the receive path downstream of the interpolation filter to prevent processing of the unusable second digitized samples.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 11, 2006
    Publication date: February 15, 2007
    Applicant: STMicroelectronics Belgium NV
    Inventor: Pietro Capretta
  • Publication number: 20070037510
    Abstract: A receive path in a receiver including circuitry for deriving a first stream of first digitized samples from a received analog signal at a first sampling rate, and at least one interpolating filter in parallel with the first stream of first digitized samples for generating at least a second stream of digitized samples at the first sampling rate but offset with respect to the first stream by a fraction of a sample time period.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 11, 2006
    Publication date: February 15, 2007
    Applicant: STMicroelectronics Belgium NV
    Inventor: Pietro Capretta
  • Publication number: 20070036247
    Abstract: Method and apparatus for a wireless receiver are described which derive at least a first stream of first digitized samples from a received analog signal at a first sampling rate and identify a first frequency offset based on a plurality of parallel correlations using complex reference signals which differ from each other by phase offsets. A second frequency offset is identified based on tracking a demodulation accuracy for each symbol which is demodulated from the first stream of digitized samples. These frequency offsets can be used to rotate decision areas in the demodulator. The methods and apparatus may be used in a Bluetooth receiver.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 11, 2006
    Publication date: February 15, 2007
    Applicant: STMicroelectronics Belgium NV
    Inventors: Pietro Capretta, Steven Terryn, Jean-Jacques Schmit
  • Publication number: 20070036252
    Abstract: A receiver is described including circuitry for deriving at least a first stream of first digitized samples from a received analog signal at a first sampling rate, circuitry for selecting a first sampling point and at least a second sampling point, a demodulator for demodulating first and second symbols from the at least first stream of samples based on the first and the at least second sampling points, and circuitry for determining a value related to a demodulation accuracy for the first and second symbols and for outputting a signal, the circuitry for selecting being adapted to alter the sampling point based on the signal. By assessing a demodulation accuracy in real time clock drift can be compensated. The demodulation accuracy can be a value related to a phase error or an error energy such as EVM or DEVM for each demodulated symbol.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 11, 2006
    Publication date: February 15, 2007
    Applicant: STMicroelectronics Belgium NV
    Inventors: Pietro Capretta, Steven Terryn, Jean-Jacques Schmit