Patents by Inventor Brent Mulholland

Brent Mulholland 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: 8812889
    Abstract: Controlling access to memory includes receiving a plurality of memory access requests and assigning corresponding time values to each. The assigned time values are adjusted based upon a clock pulse and a priority access list is generated. Factors consider include missed access deadlines, closeness to missing access deadlines, and whether a page is open. The highest ranked client is then passed to a sequencer to allow the requested access. Time values may be assigned and adjusted according to client ID or client type (latency or bandwidth). A plurality of power modes of operation are defined wherein operation in a selected power mode of operation is based at least in part on the assigned or adjusted time values. The processing is performed in hardware in parallel (at the same time) by associated logic circuits.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 5, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 19, 2014
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Mark N. Fullerton, Sathish Kumar Radhakrishnan, Brent Mulholland, Ravi S. Setty
  • Publication number: 20110276766
    Abstract: Controlling access to memory includes receiving a plurality of memory access requests and assigning corresponding time values to each. The assigned time values are adjusted based upon a clock pulse and a priority access list is generated. Factors consider include missed access deadlines, closeness to missing access deadlines, and whether a page is open. The highest ranked client is then passed to a sequencer to allow the requested access. Time values may be assigned and adjusted according to client ID or client type (latency or bandwidth). A plurality of power modes of operation are defined wherein operation in a selected power mode of operation is based at least in part on the assigned or adjusted time values. The processing is performed in hardware in parallel (at the same time) by associated logic circuits.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 5, 2010
    Publication date: November 10, 2011
    Applicant: BROADCOM CORPORATION
    Inventors: Mark N. Fullerton, Sathish Kumar Radhakrishnan, Brent Mulholland, Ravi S. Setty, Lance Flake, Vinay Bhasin
  • Publication number: 20110276817
    Abstract: Controlling access to memory includes receiving a plurality of memory access requests and assigning corresponding time values to each. The assigned time values are adjusted based upon a clock pulse and a priority access list is generated. Factors consider include missed access deadlines, closeness to missing access deadlines, and whether a page is open. The highest ranked client is then passed to a sequencer to allow the requested access. Time values may be assigned and adjusted according to client ID or client type (latency or bandwidth). A plurality of power modes of operation are defined wherein operation in a selected power mode of operation is based at least in part on the assigned or adjusted time values. The processing is performed in hardware in parallel (at the same time) by associated logic circuits.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 5, 2010
    Publication date: November 10, 2011
    Applicant: BROADCOM CORPORATION
    Inventors: Mark N. Fullerton, Sathish Kumar Radhakrishnan, Brent Mulholland, Ravi S. Setty
  • Publication number: 20080170685
    Abstract: A data scrambling circuit is provided. The data scrambling circuit includes an integrated circuit having a digital logic device and an interface circuit coupled to the digital logic device. Also included is an external memory coupled to output pins on the interface circuit. The digital logic device communicates patterned data to the interface circuit. The interface circuit then scrambles the patterned data to produce a pseudo random output to be stored within the external memory and unscrambled a pseudo random signal from the external memory to produce unscrambled data to be read by the digital logic device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 19, 2007
    Publication date: July 17, 2008
    Applicant: Broadcom Corporation, a California Corporation
    Inventors: Lance Flake, Brent Mulholland
  • Publication number: 20080005749
    Abstract: Hard disk controller having multiple, distributed processors. A novel approach is presented by which a separate and dedicated processor is provisioned to service each of a plurality of control loops within a hard disk drive (HDD) controller. For example, a first processor is implemented to service a servo control loop, a second processor is implemented to service channel interfacing, and a third processor is implemented to service host interfacing. In some embodiments, the channel and host interfacing are performed using protocol processors implemented within each of a disk manager module and a host manager module, respectively.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 1, 2006
    Publication date: January 3, 2008
    Applicant: Broadcom Corporation, a California Corporation
    Inventors: John P. Mead, Lance Flake, Kevin W. McGinnis, Brent Mulholland
  • Publication number: 20070189084
    Abstract: A method is provided for reducing the number of conductive interfaces required to interface to a SDRAM. One or more conductive interfaces can be used, during a cycle, to both transfer data and provide a command or an address to an SDRAM. More specifically, each of the conductive interfaces on a controller can be used to control one data conductive interface and one of an address, bank address, RAS, CAS, or WE conductive interface on an SDRAM. The interface for the present invention provides a lower conductive interface count ASIC with a smaller package than a conventional SDRAM interface.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 15, 2006
    Publication date: August 16, 2007
    Applicant: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventor: Brent Mulholland
  • Patent number: 6392935
    Abstract: A multi-bank dynamic random access memory (DRAM) device is configured such that the bandwidth for performing data transfers is increased and the latency when performing the operations is decreased. The memory device when incorporated in a computer system may be configured such that data requests are received from one or more other devices in the system for data transfer functions. Further, through the interleaving of access to the multiple banks within the memory array, various set-up functions are performed on one bank while data transfer functions are performed on another bank, thus effectively hiding such functions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 3, 2001
    Date of Patent: May 21, 2002
    Assignee: Maxtor Corporation
    Inventor: Brent Mulholland