Patents by Inventor Alastair Reid

Alastair Reid has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 8200948
    Abstract: An apparatus and method are provided for performing re-arrangement operations on data. The data processing apparatus has a register data store with a plurality of registers for storing data, and processing logic for performing a sequence of operations on data including at least one re-arrangement operation. The processing logic has scalar processing logic for performing scalar operations and SIMD processing logic for performing SIMD operations. The SIMD processing logic is responsive to a re-arrangement instruction specifying a family of re-arrangement operations to perform a selected re-arrangement operation from that family on a plurality of data elements constituted by data in one or more registers identified by the re-arrangement instruction. The selected re-arrangement operation is dependent on at least one parameter provided by the scalar processing logic, that parameter identifying a data element width for the data elements on which the selected re-arrangement operation is performed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 12, 2012
    Assignee: ARM Limited
    Inventors: Daniel Kershaw, Dominic Hugo Symes, Alastair Reid
  • Patent number: 8185724
    Abstract: An integrated circuit, and method of reviewing values of one or more signals occurring within that integrated circuit, are provided. The integrated circuit comprises processing logic for executing a program, and monitoring logic for reviewing values of one or more signals occurring within the integrated circuit as a result of execution of the program. The monitoring logic stores configuration data, which can be software programmed in relation to the signals to be monitored. Further, the monitoring logic makes use of a Bloom filter which, for a value to be reviewed, performs a hash operation on that value in order to reference the configuration data to determine whether that value is either definitely not a value within the range or is potentially a value within the range of values. If the value is determined to be within the set of values, then a trigger signal is generated which can be used to trigger a further monitoring process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2012
    Assignee: ARM Limited
    Inventors: Simon Andrew Ford, Alastair Reid
  • Publication number: 20100122044
    Abstract: A parallel processing technique is described for performing parallel processing operations upon N-dimensional arrays of data elements for which a corresponding N-dimensional Scoreboard of status data is held. Hazard checking for data dependencies upon data elements within the N-dimensional array of data elements is performed by looking up the corresponding status value within the Scoreboard. The status data for a given data element within the Scoreboard is located at a position which can be derived from the position of the data elements within its N-dimensional array. Thus, a two-dimensional array of video macroblocks can have a corresponding two-dimensional Scoreboard of status data indicating whether individual macroblocks have, for example, either already been deblocked or have not already been deblocked.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 11, 2006
    Publication date: May 13, 2010
    Inventors: Simon Ford, Dominic Hugo Symes, Alastair Reid
  • Publication number: 20090043993
    Abstract: An integrated circuit, and method of reviewing values of one or more signals occurring within that integrated circuit, are provided. The integrated circuit comprises processing logic for executing a program, and monitoring logic for reviewing values of one or more signals occurring within the integrated circuit as a result of execution of the program. The monitoring logic stores configuration data, which can be software programmed in relation to the signals to be monitored. Further, the monitoring logic makes use of a Bloom filter which, for a value to be reviewed, performs a hash operation on that value in order to reference the configuration data to determine whether that value is either definitely not a value within the range or is potentially a value within the range of values. If the value is determined to be within the set of values, then a trigger signal is generated which can be used to trigger a further monitoring process.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 3, 2006
    Publication date: February 12, 2009
    Inventors: Simon Andrew Ford, Alastair Reid
  • Publication number: 20080141004
    Abstract: An apparatus and method are provided for performing re-arrangement operations on data. The data processing apparatus has a register data store with a plurality of registers for storing data, and processing logic for performing a sequence of operations on data including at least one re-arrangement operation. The processing logic has scalar processing logic for performing scalar operations and SIMD processing logic for performing SIMD operations. The SIMD processing logic is responsive to a re-arrangement instruction specifying a family of re-arrangement operations to perform a selected re-arrangement operation from that family on a plurality of data elements constituted by data in one or more registers identified by the re-arrangement instruction. The selected re-arrangement operation is dependent on at least one parameter provided by the scalar processing logic, that parameter identifying a data element width for the data elements on which the selected re-arrangement operation is performed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 4, 2007
    Publication date: June 12, 2008
    Applicant: ARM Limited
    Inventors: Daniel Kershaw, Dominic Hugo Symes, Alastair Reid
  • Publication number: 20080114937
    Abstract: A computer implemented tool is provided for assisting in the mapping of a computer program to an asymmetric multiprocessing apparatus 2 incorporating an asymmetric memory hierarchy formed of a plurality of memories 12, 14. An at least partial architectural description 22, 40 is provided as an input variable to the tool and used to infer missing annotations within a source computer program 24, such as which functions are to be executed by which execution mechanisms 4, 6, 8 and which variables are to be stored within which memories 12, 14. The tool also adds mapping support commands, such as cache flush commands, cache invalidate commands, DMA move commands and the like as necessary to support the mapping of the computer program to the asymmetric multiprocessing apparatus 2.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 23, 2007
    Publication date: May 15, 2008
    Applicant: ARM Limited
    Inventors: Alastair Reid, Edmund Grimley-Evans, Simon Ford