Patents by Inventor Bruce E. Cairns

Bruce E. Cairns 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).

  • Encoding assertion and de-assertion of interrupt requests and DMA requests in a serial bus I/O system
    Patent number: 5634069
    Abstract: A computing system encodes and emulates requests signals, such as DMA requests or interrupt requests. A first peripheral device is connected to a first request pin of a first input/output (I/O) device. When the first peripheral device asserts a first request signal on the first request pin, a serializer within the first I/O device generates a first packet. The serializer forwards the first packet to a serial out port of the first I/O device. The first packet identifies the type of request and the direction of the edge transition. The serial out port forwards the first packet to a serial in port of a controller device. Upon the serial in port receiving the first packet, an unserializer within the controller device asserts an emulated first request signal, the emulated first request signal being coupled to a first request controller within the controller device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 18, 1995
    Date of Patent: May 27, 1997
    Assignee: VLSI Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Gary D. Hicok, David R. Evoy, Gary A. Walker, Joseph A. Thomsen, Lonnie C. Goff, Bruce E. Cairns