Patents Assigned to Sun Microsystems
  • Patent number: 6696881
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for compensating for gate current through a first capacitor includes: a biasing circuit; a first compensation transistor; a second compensation transistor; and a compensation capacitor. The biasing circuit ensures the bias voltage across the compensation capacitor is equal to the bias voltage across the first capacitor. In addition, the size of the second compensation transistor is chosen such that if, the ratio of the area of the compensation capacitor divided by the area of the first capacitor is area ratio “AR”, then, the ratio of the size of first compensation transistor divided by the size of second compensation transistor is also area ratio “AR”. As a result, according to the method and apparatus of the present invention, the gate current Ig through the first capacitor is equal to the current drained off through second compensation transistor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 4, 2003
    Date of Patent: February 24, 2004
    Assignee: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventor: Kenneth Ho
  • Patent number: 6697877
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for managing relationships among objects in a distributed object environment includes a method and apparatus for determining whether two or more object references refer to identical objects; a method and apparatus for providing a unique identifier for an object; a method and apparatus for checking role types for the formation of relationships; and a method and apparatus for caching role and object locations in roles in a relationship. In the method and apparatus for determining whether two or more object references refer to the same object, a unique object identifier is compared to determine if the objects referred to by the object references are identical. The unique identifier is provided by concatenating information identifying the machine address of the process that created the object in addition to the process ID, the time of creation and a process counter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 10, 1997
    Date of Patent: February 24, 2004
    Assignee: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventors: Bruce E. Martin, Jefferson A. Dinkins, Mark W. Hapner
  • Patent number: 6697999
    Abstract: A computer-based method for improved automatic formatting of a document provides easier accepting and rejecting of formatting actions made by the automatic formatting method. In particular, the user inputs a document, or any part of a document, into a computer system. For each document portion that the user wants formatted in a particular way, the user delimits that portion of the document with a unique format identification feature that corresponds to a format rule. When the user initiates the computer-based automatic formatting method, the method identifies each document portion in the document delimited by at least one format identification feature, and applies to that document portion a format rule corresponding to the at least one format identification feature. The method displays an indicium of the format rule together with the document portion thereby displaying the format rule and the document portion together. The method then receives a user input accepting or rejecting the displayed format rule.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2000
    Date of Patent: February 24, 2004
    Assignee: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventors: Matthias Breuer, Jürgen Pingel
  • Publication number: 20040032002
    Abstract: An interconnect structure includes a signal wire and an active shield line adjacent to, but removed from, the signal wire. The interconnect structure also includes another active shield line adjacent to, but removed from, the signal wire. A signal driver is connected to the signal wire. The signal driver drives a pulse on the signal wire. A shield driver is connected to the active shield line. The shield driver asserts a signal on the active shield line substantially simultaneous with the pulse. Another shield driver is connected to the another active shield line. The another shield driver asserts a signal on the another active shield line substantially simultaneous with the pulse. The effect of the simultaneous signals on the signal wire and the active shield lines is to effectively cancel the lateral capacitances between these lines.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 13, 2002
    Publication date: February 19, 2004
    Applicant: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventors: Edgardo F. Klass, Andrew J. Demas
  • Publication number: 20040032722
    Abstract: An electronics module comprises a housing; and a plurality of electronic and electrical components for example fans. The module includes electromagnetic shielding for example perforated panels side walls etc. that is associated with the housing and/or the electronic components, and which provides a Faraday cage for the electronic components. The shielding is constructed so that one or more of the components can be removed from the module while the module is in operation substantially without affecting the integrity of the Faraday cage. The module enables certain components thereof to be replaced without adding to the downtime of the system or increasing electromagnetic interference.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 2, 2003
    Publication date: February 19, 2004
    Applicant: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventors: Sean Conor Wrycraft, Brian Benstead
  • Publication number: 20040034673
    Abstract: We present a technique for implementing obstruction-free atomic multi-target transactions that target special “transactionable” locations in shared memory. A programming interface for using operations based on these transactions can be structured in several ways, including as n-word compare-and-swap (NCAS) operations or as atomic sequences of single-word loads and stores (e.g., as transactional memory).
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 16, 2003
    Publication date: February 19, 2004
    Applicant: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventors: Mark S. Moir, Victor M. Luchangco, Maurice Herlihy
  • Publication number: 20040034856
    Abstract: An invention is provided for affording thread priority control in a distributed computer system. At least one task is executed on a server, where each task includes a task identifier and a priority value. In addition, a change priority message, which includes priority value and a task identifier, is received over a network. In response, the priority value of a specific task having the same task identifier as the task identifier of the change priority message is set equal to the priority value of the change priority message. As a result, the specific task is executed at a priority level relative to the priority value of the specific task.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 15, 2002
    Publication date: February 19, 2004
    Applicant: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventors: Konstantin I. Boudnik, Weiqiang Zhang
  • Patent number: 6692534
    Abstract: The present invention provides an apparatus for booth decoding which stores the most significant bit of the lower half of the number used as the key for booth decoding. By using this stored bit to determine the rightmost booth group corresponding to the upper half of the key, booth decoding may be accomplished more quickly using an apparatus that is simpler and smaller than prior art assemblies.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 1999
    Date of Patent: February 17, 2004
    Assignee: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventors: Yong Wang, Allan Tzeng
  • Patent number: 6694447
    Abstract: The present invention provides a method and apparatus for increasing availability of an application during fail-back from a secondary site to a primary site following a failure at the primary site. The method includes copying data from active storage volumes to secondary storage volumes of the secondary site while the application runs on the secondary site and updates the active storage volumes. Once the secondary storage volumes of the secondary site are updated, the data is re-synchronized from the secondary storage volumes of the secondary site to the primary storage volumes of the primary site. The steps of copying the data and resynchronizing the data are repeated for data updated by the application, during the resynchronization, until a time required to complete the resynchronization step for the updated data is within an acceptable downtime for the application. Once this step is complete, the application is failed-back to the primary site by bringing up the application at the primary site.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2000
    Date of Patent: February 17, 2004
    Assignee: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventors: Judith G. Leach, Philip J. Crane
  • Patent number: 6693799
    Abstract: A circuit board mount is provided for mounting a circuit board in an electronic equipment housing. The mount is mountable on a surface within the housing and includes a slot for receiving and supporting the circuit board at a first height with respect to the housing surface. The mount further comprises at least one upstand of a second height higher than that of the circuit board, whereby a component can be supported on the upstand without contacting the circuit board. The mount is thus able to support the circuit board and to protect the circuit board during handling of other components within the housing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 2002
    Date of Patent: February 17, 2004
    Assignee: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventors: Gerald Ronald Gough, James Robert Kitchen
  • Patent number: 6691768
    Abstract: The present invention discloses improved heatsink designs and methods for cooling a heat source. One embodiment is a heatsink assembly for removing heat from an electronic component, the heatsink assembly comprising a copper-based core section having a first surface generally adapted to conform to an exposed mating surface of an electronic device and a second surface having a generally convex curvature having a greater surface area than the first surface. An aluminum-based outer section has a first surface comprising a concave curvature that is generally adapted to conform to the convex curvature of the core and a second surface. A plurality of fin elements protrude outwardly from the second surface of the outer section. At least one cooling fan can be positioned to direct airflow onto the fin elements. The core section can comprise a semi-spherical shape and can be joined by a finger-joint type connection to the outer section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 17, 2004
    Assignee: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventors: Teh-Ming Hsieh, Bryan H. Tran, Julian A. Alipio
  • Patent number: 6694502
    Abstract: Provided is a data structure containing wiring information for an integrated circuit and a method for storing the same in a computer readable medium. In one embodiment of the present invention storage of the data structure is achieved by mapping said integrated circuit into memory locations of said medium as a wiring plane having a plurality of data points arranged in a grid. Each of the plurality of data points having state information associated therewith, which includes a plurality of attributes. Subsections of the grid are associated with memory locations in the computer readable medium to form a plurality of tiles. Specifically the tiles and data points are arranged so that a sub-portion of the data points associated with one of the plurality of tiles have common attributes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 17, 2004
    Assignee: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventors: Sharad Mehrotra, Parsotam T. Patel
  • Patent number: 6694389
    Abstract: The present invention provides a method and apparatus for data flow control. One embodiment detects input congestion and output starvation in a plurality of sub-buffers of a ripple FIFO buffer. This embodiment is used to draw conclusions about the occupancy of the ripple FIFO buffer under steady-state conditions. One embodiment detects input congestion and output starvation at every sub-buffer of the ripple FIFO buffer. Other embodiments detect input congestion and output starvation at a subset of the sub-buffers of the ripple FIFO buffer. One embodiment determines occupancy of the ripple FIFO buffer by the number of sub-buffers which report a steady congested state. Another embodiment determines occupancy of the ripple FIFO buffer by the number of sub-buffers which report a steady starved state. Another embodiment determines occupancy of the ripple FIFO buffer by the location of sub-buffers which report a steady congested state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 17, 2004
    Assignee: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventors: William S. Coates, Mark R. Greenstreet
  • Patent number: 6694499
    Abstract: A technique for verifying decoupling capacitance using a maximum flow determination is provided. The technique involves generating a network representing decoupling capacitors and driver elements on an integrated circuit, selectively establishing connections between decoupling capacitors and driver elements, and determining a maximum flow of the network. Using the maximum flow of the network, a designer may then verify whether particular driver elements are receiving sufficient decoupling capacitance and whether particular decoupling capacitors are being used efficiently, and subsequently redesign an integrated circuit as deemed necessary.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 17, 2004
    Assignee: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventors: Devendra Vidhani, Tyler Thorp
  • Patent number: 6694379
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for providing distributed clip-list management. In an embodiment, an application maintains a local clip-list that identifies those portions of a remote frame buffer that are unambiguously associated with the given application, as well as those portions of the remote frame buffer which are disputed between the given application and one or more other applications. Applications may enforce a dispute policy with respect to writing image data to disputed regions of the frame buffer. Applications are able to write to the frame buffer asynchronously, without the use of a frame buffer lock. A clip manager maintains a global clip-list, and responds to messages from the applications by updating the global clip-list and informing those other applications of relevant changes to their own respective local clip-lists.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 9, 1999
    Date of Patent: February 17, 2004
    Assignee: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventors: James G. Hanko, Alan T. Ruberg, J. Duane Northcutt, Gerard A. Wall
  • Patent number: 6694412
    Abstract: A multiprocessor digital data processing system comprises a plurality of processing cells arranged in a hierarchy of rings. The system selectively allocates storage and moves exclusive data copies from cell to cell in response to access requests generated by the cells. Routing elements are employed to selectively broadcast data access requests, updates and transfers on the rings.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 17, 2004
    Assignee: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventors: Steven J. Frank, Henry Burkhardt, III, Linda O. Lee, Nathan Goodman, Benson I. Margulies, Frederick D. Weber
  • Patent number: 6694493
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for assigning decoupling capacitors on an integrated circuit such that leakage power is minimized is provided. Particularly, the method and apparatus use an available capacitance area of an integrated circuit, a capacitance requirement of the integrated circuit, an available thin-oxide capacitance amount, and an available thick-oxide capacitance amount to generate an assignment that indicates what percentage of the available capacitance area should be filled with thin-oxide capacitors and what percentage of the available capacitance area should be filled with thick-oxide capacitors in order to meet the capacitance requirement and minimize leakage power attributable to the thin-oxide and thick-oxide capacitors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 17, 2004
    Assignee: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventors: Sudhakar Bobba, Tyler Thorp
  • Patent number: 6694259
    Abstract: A system and method for delivering parking information is disclosed. Embodiments of the present claimed invention utilize video imaging to analyze the availability of parking spaces. More specifically, a computer is used to process video images of a parking location to determine if a parking space is available.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 17, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 17, 2004
    Assignee: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventors: David Curbow, Eric Macintosh, Robert St. Pierre, Stephen Uhler
  • Patent number: D486832
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2003
    Date of Patent: February 17, 2004
    Assignee: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventors: Kuni Masuda, James Stanton, Christopher H. Frank
  • Patent number: D487090
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2002
    Date of Patent: February 24, 2004
    Assignee: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventors: Helenaur Wilson, James Robert Kitchen, Nigel D. Ritson, Andrew P. Tosh, Christopher H. Frank, James Mark Stanton, June Lee