Patents by Inventor Emory D. Keller

Emory D. Keller 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: 7870454
    Abstract: A design structure for a system for and method of performing high speed memory diagnostics via built-in-self-test (BIST) is disclosed. In particular, a test system includes a tester for testing an integrated circuit that includes a BIST circuit and a test control circuit. The BIST circuit further includes a BIST engine and fail logic for testing an imbedded memory array. The test control circuit includes three binary up/down counters, a variable delay, and a comparator circuit. A method of performing high speed memory diagnostics via BIST includes, but is not limited to, presetting the counters of the test control circuit, presetting the variable delay to a value that is equal to the latency of the fail logic, setting the BIST cycle counter to decrement mode, presetting the variable delay to zero, re-executing the test algorithm and performing a second test operation of capturing the fail data, and performing a third test operation of transmitting the fail data to the tester.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 23, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 11, 2011
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kevin W. Gorman, Emory D. Keller, Michael R. Ouellette, Donald L. Wheater
  • Patent number: 7752355
    Abstract: An asynchronous data transfer interface is provided across a boundary that allows high bandwidth data transfers which are packet based as defined by PCI_Express architecture, and has general utility in processor-based applications like servers, desktop applications, and mobile applications. A shared set of multi-port RAM buffers allow both an application layer AL and a transaction layer TL access to a communication protocol layer in a defined process that allows both the application layer AL and the transaction layer TL to read and manage the buffers in a 16 byte boundary in a manner that allows a data credit to be decoupled from a header credit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2004
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Emory D. Keller, Anthony J. Perri, Sebastian T. Ventrone
  • Patent number: 7735031
    Abstract: A system that includes a controller for enabling an enumeration operation. The enumeration operation is performed by a controller (110) and logic elements (120) in a system, such that each logic element in the system assigns itself a unique identifier. Each logic element can then be controlled by another source or have a means to communicate with other logic elements in the system. The unique identifier enables greater system flexibility, thereby reducing cost and improving efficiency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 20, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Valerie Hornbeck Chickanosky, Kevin William Gorman, Emory D. Keller, Michael Richard Ouellette
  • Patent number: 7702838
    Abstract: A configuration space bus includes a configuration space on a primary interface and an extension or secondary interface in communication with a configuration space of the primary interface. When the primary interface receives a transaction request which it does not recognize, the transaction request is passed to the secondary interface for processing. The primary bus then waits for a response from the secondary bus. If the primary interface receives a transaction request which it does recognize, that transaction request is processed by the primary bus. The extension interface allows the primary bus to receive and process industry standard specification defined commands as well as forward commands defined by a user to the extension bus for processing. Multiple buses may be cascaded to form a primary extension interface, a secondary interface, a third interface, etc. A transaction request is passed down through such a chain of interfaces until an interface recognizes and processes it.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 2004
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Emory D. Keller
  • Patent number: 7689887
    Abstract: A Built-In-Self-Test (BIST) state machine providing BIST testing operations associated with a thermal sensor device(s) located in proximity to the circuit(s) to which BIST testing operations are applied, and a design structure including the BIST state machine embodied in a machine readable medium are provided. The thermal sensor device compares the current temperature value sensed to a predetermined temperature threshold and determines whether the predetermined threshold is exceeded. A BIST control element suspends the BIST testing operation in response to meeting or exceeding said predetermined temperature threshold, and initiates resumption of BIST testing operations when the current temperature value normalizes or is reduced. A BIST testing methodology implements steps for mitigating the exceeded temperature threshold condition in response to determining that the predetermined temperature threshold is met or exceeded.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 30, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kevin W. Gorman, Emory D. Keller, Michael R. Ouellette
  • Patent number: 7607060
    Abstract: A system and method for performing high speed memory diagnostics via built-in-self-test (BIST). A test system includes a tester for testing an integrated circuit that includes a BIST circuit and a test control circuit. The BIST circuit further includes a BIST engine and fail logic for testing an imbedded memory array. The test control circuit includes three binary up/down counters, a variable delay, and a comparator circuit. A method includes presetting the counters of the test control circuit, presetting the variable delay to a value that is equal to the latency of the fail logic, setting the BIST cycle counter to decrement mode, presetting the variable delay to zero, re-executing the test algorithm, performing a second test operation of capturing the fail data, and performing a third test operation of transmitting the fail data to the tester.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2006
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2009
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kevin W. Gorman, Emory D. Keller, Michael R. Ouellette, Donald L. Wheater
  • Publication number: 20090161722
    Abstract: A Built-In-Self-Test (BIST) state machine providing BIST testing operations associated with a thermal sensor device(s) located in proximity to the circuit(s) to which BIST testing operations are applied, and a design structure including the BIST state machine embodied in a machine readable medium are provided. The thermal sensor device compares the current temperature value sensed to a predetermined temperature threshold and determines whether the predetermined threshold is exceeded. A BIST control element suspends the BIST testing operation in response to meeting or exceeding said predetermined temperature threshold, and initiates resumption of BIST testing operations when the current temperature value normalizes or is reduced. A BIST testing methodology implements steps for mitigating the exceeded temperature threshold condition in response to determining that the predetermined temperature threshold is met or exceeded.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 21, 2007
    Publication date: June 25, 2009
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kevin W. Gorman, Emory D. Keller, Michael R. Ouellette
  • Publication number: 20090052609
    Abstract: A system that includes a controller for enabling an enumeration operation. The enumeration operation is performed by a controller (110) and logic elements (120) in a system, such that each logic element in the system assigns itself a unique identifier. Each logic element can then be controlled by another source or have a means to communicate with other logic elements in the system. The unique identifier enables greater system flexibility, thereby reducing cost and improving efficiency.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 20, 2007
    Publication date: February 26, 2009
    Inventors: Valerie Hornbeck Chickanosky, Kevin William Gorman, Emory D. Keller, Michael Richard Ouellette
  • Patent number: 7458000
    Abstract: A Built-In-Self-Test (BIST) state machine providing BIST testing operations associated with a thermal sensor device(s) located in proximity to the circuit(s) to which BIST testing operations are applied. The thermal sensor device compares the current temperature value sensed to a predetermined temperature threshold and determines whether the predetermined threshold is exceeded. A BIST control element suspends the BIST testing operation in response to meeting or exceeding said predetermined temperature threshold, and initiates resumption of BIST testing operations when the current temperature value normalizes or is reduced. A BIST testing methodology implements steps for mitigating the exceeded temperature threshold condition in response to determining that the predetermined temperature threshold is met or exceeded.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 25, 2008
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kevin W. Gorman, Emory D. Keller, Michael R. Ouellette
  • Publication number: 20080222464
    Abstract: A design structure for a system for and method of performing high speed memory diagnostics via built-in-self-test (BIST) is disclosed. In particular, a test system includes a tester for testing an integrated circuit that includes a BIST circuit and a test control circuit. The BIST circuit further includes a BIST engine and fail logic for testing an imbedded memory array. The test control circuit includes three binary up/down counters, a variable delay, and a comparator circuit. A method of performing high speed memory diagnostics via BIST includes, but is not limited to, presetting the counters of the test control circuit, presetting the variable delay to a value that is equal to the latency of the fail logic, setting the BIST cycle counter to decrement mode, presetting the variable delay to zero, re-executing the test algorithm and performing a second test operation of capturing the fail data, and performing a third test operation of transmitting the fail data to the tester.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 23, 2008
    Publication date: September 11, 2008
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kevin W. Gorman, Emory D. Keller, Michael R. Ouellette, Donald L. Wheater
  • Publication number: 20080082883
    Abstract: A system for and method of performing high speed memory diagnostics via built-in-self-test (BIST) is disclosed. In particular, a test system includes a tester for testing an integrated circuit that includes a BIST circuit and a test control circuit. The BIST circuit further includes a BIST engine and fail logic for testing an imbedded memory array. The test control circuit includes three binary up/down counters, a variable delay, and a comparator circuit. A method of performing high speed memory diagnostics via BIST includes, but is not limited to, presetting the counters of the test control circuit, presetting the variable delay to a value that is equal to the latency of the fail logic, setting the BIST cycle counter to decrement mode, presetting the variable delay to zero, re-executing the test algorithm and performing a second test operation of capturing the fail data, and performing a third test operation of transmitting the fail data to the tester.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 12, 2006
    Publication date: April 3, 2008
    Inventors: Kevin W Gorman, Emory D. Keller, Michael R. Ouellette, Donald L. Wheater
  • Patent number: 6978234
    Abstract: A method of creating a prototype data processing system, by configuring a hardware development chip (HDC) according to user-defined settings, building user-defined logic adapted to function with the configured development chip, and allowing for the re-configuration of the HDC and user-defined logic after debugging. The HDC has several data processing macros including a processor core macro, a ROM emulation macro, a memory macro, and a bus macro. The macros may be configured by a configuration pin block which is connected to external configuration pins on the HDC. Customer logic is built using a field programmable gate array, which is interconnected with external ports of the HDC. The HDC and customer logic are verified using a debug port on the HDC, which is connected to a debug workstation. The invention allows a user to easily and quickly debug an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) design with a unique version of selected processor cores.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2000
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2005
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Robert P. Battaline, Emory D. Keller, Sebastian T. Ventrone
  • Publication number: 20030145290
    Abstract: A method and structure for a verification test bench system for testing an interface of a system-on-a-chip (SOC) that includes a verification interface model connected to the SOC interface and a test bench external bus interface unit (EBIU) connected to the verification interface model. The test bench EBIU is connected to a SOC EBIU within the SOC. The test bench EBIU and the SOC EBIU are mastered by the same processor in the SOC, such that the SOC interface and the verification interface model are programmed by the same test case running in the SOC.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 30, 2002
    Publication date: July 31, 2003
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Robert J. Devins, Paul G. Ferro, Emory D. Keller, David W. Milton
  • Patent number: 6487701
    Abstract: A system and method are described for separating the bulk connections for FETs on a semiconductor wafer from the supply rails, testing the wafer to determine if a shift in the threshold voltage, VT, of certain devices within the wafer, as defined by the bulk-wells, can remove an AC defect in the IC circuit, and tailoring the voltage or voltages applied to the bulk nodes, post-manufacture, such that the integrated circuit meets its performance targets or is sorted to a more valuable performance level. The method requires generating a gate level netlist of the IC's circuitry and performing timing calculations on these circuit netlists using static timing analyses, functional delay simulations, circuit activity analyses, and functional performance testing. The failures are then correlated to respective IC circuits, worst case slack circuits are investigated, and proposed changes to the threshold voltages are employed in the hardware.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 13, 2000
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Alvar A. Dean, Jerry D. Hayes, Joseph A. Iadanza, Emory D. Keller, Sebastian T. Ventrone
  • Patent number: 5784595
    Abstract: A method and system are disclosed for simulating a direct memory access (DMA) function to access memory in a host computer having a DMA controller for the purpose of enabling the transfer of data between the host memory and a computer accessory data handling device not capable of DMA operation. The accessory data handling device can be operably connected to the host. The address contents of the DMA controller can be read to determine the location in the host memory where data is to be transferred from the host memory to the accessory data handling device or from the accessory data handling device to the host memory. Data is read from the host memory at the address specified in the DMA controller and written to the accessory data handling device or read from the accessory data handling device and written to the host memory at the address specified by the DMA controller, respectively.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 7, 1997
    Date of Patent: July 21, 1998
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Robert J. Devins, Stephen Hon, Patrick Kam, Emory D. Keller
  • Patent number: 5768631
    Abstract: An audio system is provided for generating audio sound for a host computer. It includes an interface connector for connection with the host computer; an interface controller for communicating with the host computer using the interface connector; a trap adapted to trap audio instruction signals from an application running on the host, such as a game having an audio portion; a trap controller adapted to control the trap; and an audio output. The system operates with an interface communicator which is adapted to respond to a request from the interface controller to read information from the trap and send audio output instruction to the audio output to generate audio sound.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 1995
    Date of Patent: June 16, 1998
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Patrick K. Kam, Robert J. Devins, Stephen Hon, Emory D. Keller