Patents by Inventor Daniel SARA

Daniel SARA 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).

  • Publication number: 20190266010
    Abstract: A transaction handling device comprises transaction handling circuitry to handle a transaction request for a data processing transaction, the transaction request having an associated identifier such that at least an aspect of processing for each of a set of transaction requests having the same identifier must be performed in the order of issue of that set of transactions; and detection circuitry to detect the state of an indicator associated with the identifier to indicate whether that identifier relates to more than one concurrently pending transaction request.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 13, 2017
    Publication date: August 29, 2019
    Inventors: Andrew David TUNE, Daniel SARA, Guanghui GENG
  • Patent number: 10078589
    Abstract: Interconnect circuitry and a method of operating the interconnect circuitry are provided, where the interconnect circuitry is suitable to couple at least two master devices to a memory, each comprising a local cache. Any access to the memory mediated by the interconnect circuitry is policed by a memory protection controller situated between the interconnect circuitry and the memory. The interconnect circuitry modifies a coherency type associated with a memory transaction received from one of the master devices to a type which ensures that when a modified version of a copy of a transaction target specified by the issuing master device is stored in a local cache of another master device an access to the transaction target in the memory must take place and therefore must be policed by the memory protection controller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 18, 2018
    Assignee: ARM Limited
    Inventors: Daniel Sara, Antony John Harris, Håkan Lars-Göran Persson, Andrew Christopher Rose, Ian Bratt
  • Patent number: 9852088
    Abstract: A system-on-check integrated circuit 2 includes interconnect circuitry 4 connecting a plurality of transaction sources to a plurality of transaction destinations. The interconnect circuitry 4 includes a reorder buffer for buffering access transactions and hazard checking circuitry 46, 48, 50, 52 for performing hazard checks, such as point-of-serialization checks and identifier reuse checks. Check suppression circuitry 62, 64, 66, 68 serves to suppress one or more hazard checks depending upon one or more state variables that themselves depend upon access transactions other than the access transaction for which the hazard checking is or is not to be suppressed. As an example, hazard checking may be suppressed if it is known that there are no other access transactions currently buffered within the reorder buffer 26 or alternatively no other access transactions from the same transaction source buffered within the reorder buffer 26.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 23, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2017
    Assignee: ARM Limited
    Inventors: Andrew David Tune, Daniel Sara, Sean James Salisbury, Arthur Laughton, Peter Andrew Riocreux
  • Patent number: 9632955
    Abstract: A system-on-chip integrated circuit 2 includes interconnect circuitry 4 for communicating transactions between transaction sources and transaction destinations. A reorder buffer 26 serves to buffer and permit reordering of access transactions received from the transaction sources. Processing circuitry performs processing operations in parallel upon a given access transaction taken from the reorder buffer. Hazard detection and repair circuitry serves to detect an ordering hazard arising between the processing operations and if necessary cancel and repeat that processing operation. The access transactions and the reorder buffer are such that access transactions other than the access transaction for which a hazard has been detected may proceed independently of the necessity to cancel and repair that transaction thereby reducing the cost associated with cancelling and repair.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 23, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2017
    Assignee: ARM Limited
    Inventors: Arthur Laughton, Andrew David Tune, Daniel Sara
  • Patent number: 9507716
    Abstract: An interconnect has coherency control circuitry for performing coherency control operations and a snoop filter for identifying which devices coupled to the interconnect have cached data from a given address. When an address is looked up in the snoop filter and misses, and there is no spare snoop filter entry available, then the snoop filter selects a victim entry corresponding to a victim address, and issues an invalidate transaction for invalidating locally cached copies of the data identified by the victim. The coherency control circuitry for performing coherency checking operations for data access transactions is reused for performing coherency control operations for the invalidate transaction issued by the snoop filter. This greatly reduces the circuitry complexity of the snoop filter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2016
    Assignee: ARM Limited
    Inventors: Sean James Salisbury, Andrew David Tune, Jamshed Jalal, Mark David Werkheiser, Arthur Laughton, George Robert Scott Lloyd, Peter Andrew Riocreux, Daniel Sara
  • Publication number: 20160321179
    Abstract: Interconnect circuitry and a method of operating the interconnect circuitry are provided, where the interconnect circuitry is suitable to couple at least two master devices to a memory, each comprising a local cache. Any access to the memory mediated by the interconnect circuitry is policed by a memory protection controller situated between the interconnect circuitry and the memory. The interconnect circuitry modifies a coherency type associated with a memory transaction received from one of the master devices to a type which ensures that when a modified version of a copy of a transaction target specified by the issuing master device is stored in a local cache of another master device an access to the transaction target in the memory must take place and therefore must be policed by the memory protection controller.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 30, 2015
    Publication date: November 3, 2016
    Inventors: Daniel SARA, Antony John HARRIS, Håkan Lars-Göran PERSSON, Andrew Christopher ROSE, Ian BRATT
  • Patent number: 9442878
    Abstract: A system-on-chip integrated circuitry includes interconnect circuitry for connecting transaction sources with transaction destinations. A buffer circuit buffers a plurality of access transactions received from the transaction sources before they are passed on to respective transaction destinations. Hazard checking circuitry, such as identifier reuse circuitry, performs hazard checks for access transactions in parallel with snoop operations performed by snoop circuitry for managing coherence between data values stored within the plurality of cache memories. The snoop circuitry includes snoop reordering circuitry for permitting reordering of snoop responses. The snoop circuitry may issue a snoop request for a given access transaction in parallel with the hazard checking circuitry performing one or more hazard checks for that transaction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2016
    Assignee: ARM Limited
    Inventors: Daniel Sara, Andrew David Tune
  • Patent number: 9311244
    Abstract: An interconnect has transaction tracking circuitry for enforcing ordering of a set of data access transactions so that they are issued to slave devices in an order in which they are received from master devices. The transaction tracking circuitry is reused for also enforcing ordering of snoop transactions which are triggered by the set of data access transactions, for snooping master devices identified by a snoop filter as holding cache data for the target address of the transactions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2016
    Assignee: ARM Limited
    Inventors: Sean James Salisbury, Andrew David Tune, Daniel Sara
  • Publication number: 20160062890
    Abstract: An interconnect has coherency control circuitry for performing coherency control operations and a snoop filter for identifying which devices coupled to the interconnect have cached data from a given address. When an address is looked up in the snoop filter and misses, and there is no spare snoop filter entry available, then the snoop filter selects a victim entry corresponding to a victim address, and issues an invalidate transaction for invalidating locally cached copies of the data identified by the victim. The coherency control circuitry for performing coherency checking operations for data access transactions is reused for performing coherency control operations for the invalidate transaction issued by the snoop filter. This greatly reduces the circuitry complexity of the snoop filter.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 6, 2015
    Publication date: March 3, 2016
    Inventors: Sean James SALISBURY, Andrew David TUNE, Jamshed JALAL, Mark David WERKHEISER, Arthur LAUGHTON, George Robert Scott LLOYD, Peter Andrew RIOCREUX, Daniel SARA
  • Publication number: 20160055085
    Abstract: An interconnect has transaction tracking circuitry for enforcing ordering of a set of data access transactions so that they are issued to slave devices in an order in which they are received from master devices. The transaction tracking circuitry is reused for also enforcing ordering of snoop transactions which are triggered by the set of data access transactions, for snooping master devices identified by a snoop filter as holding cache data for the target address of the transactions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 25, 2014
    Publication date: February 25, 2016
    Inventors: Sean James SALISBURY, Andrew David TUNE, Daniel SARA
  • Publication number: 20150301962
    Abstract: A system-on-chip integrated circuit 2 includes interconnect circuitry 4 for communicating transactions between transaction sources and transaction destinations. A reorder buffer 26 serves to buffer and permit reordering of access transactions received from the transaction sources. Processing circuitry performs processing operations in parallel upon a given access transaction taken from the reorder buffer. Hazard detection and repair circuitry serves to detect an ordering hazard arising between the processing operations and if necessary cancel and repeat that processing operation. The access transactions and the reorder buffer are such that access transactions other than the access transaction for which a hazard has been detected may proceed independently of the necessity to cancel and repair that transaction thereby reducing the cost associated with cancelling and repair.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 23, 2015
    Publication date: October 22, 2015
    Inventors: Arthur LAUGHTON, Andrew David TUNE, Daniel SARA
  • Publication number: 20150301961
    Abstract: A system-on-check integrated circuit 2 includes interconnect circuitry 4 connecting a plurality of transaction sources to a plurality of transaction destinations. The interconnect circuitry 4 includes a reorder buffer for buffering access transactions and hazard checking circuitry 46, 48, 50, 52 for performing hazard checks, such as point-of-serialisation checks and identifier reuse checks. Check suppression circuitry 62, 64, 66, 68 serves to suppress one or more hazard checks depending upon one or more state variables that themselves depend upon access transactions other than the access transaction for which the hazard checking is or is not to be suppressed. As an example, hazard checking may be suppressed if it is known that there are no other access transactions currently buffered within the reorder buffer 26 or alternatively no other access transactions from the same transaction source buffered within the reorder buffer 26.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 23, 2015
    Publication date: October 22, 2015
    Inventors: Andrew David TUNE, Daniel SARA, Sean James SALISBURY, Arthur LAUGHTON, Peter Andrew RIOCREUX
  • Publication number: 20150302193
    Abstract: A system-on-chip integrated circuitry includes interconnect circuitry for connecting transaction sources with transaction destinations. A buffer circuit buffers a plurality of access transactions received from the transaction sources before they are passed on to respective transaction destinations. Hazard checking circuitry, such as identifier reuse circuitry, performs hazard checks for access transactions in parallel with snoop operations performed by snoop circuitry for managing coherence between data values stored within the plurality of cache memories. The snoop circuitry includes snoop reordering circuitry for permitting reordering of snoop responses. The snoop circuitry may issue a snoop request for a given access transaction in parallel with the hazard checking circuitry performing one or more hazard checks for that transaction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 17, 2014
    Publication date: October 22, 2015
    Applicant: ARM LIMITED
    Inventors: Daniel SARA, Andrew David TUNE