Patents by Inventor Eric M. Williams

Eric M. Williams 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).

  • Flow control system having a counter in transmitter for decrementing and incrementing based upon transmitting and received message size respectively for indicating free space in receiver
    Patent number: 5604866
    Abstract: A system and method for controlling the flow of messages transferred between modules of a computer system is disclosed. The system includes a receiver module comprising a buffer having a capacity to store a predetermined number of messages, and a transmitter module coupled to the receiver module. The transmitter module includes a counter for maintaining a count value representative of free space in the buffer. The transmitter module transmits a message to the buffer when the count value is greater than zero. Then, the transmitter module decrements the count value by a value characteristic of the transmitted message, such that the count value is updated to be representative of free space in the buffer after transmission of the message to the buffer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 1993
    Date of Patent: February 18, 1997
    Assignee: Silicon Graphics, Inc.
    Inventors: Ronald L. Kolb, Ramesh Padmanabhan, Eric M. Williams