Patents by Inventor Geoff Barrett

Geoff Barrett 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: 7765388
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a device for an interrupt verification support mechanism and the method for operating said device comprising a processor and an input for external interrupt requests or interrupt pseudo-instructions communicatively coupled to the processor. The method comprises the steps of processing at least one actual instruction in the processor in an instruction pipeline, and if an external interrupt request is received by the processor, the actual instruction is replaced with the pseudo-instruction. Pursuant to the method, instructions are concurrently processed in the processor in an instruction pipeline with several stages. In the instruction pipeline, instructions are processed by an instruction fetch stage, an instruction decode stage, an instruction issue stage, an execute stage and a result write-back stage. Thereby, interrupt requests are only processed at the fetch stage of the instruction pipeline.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2003
    Date of Patent: July 27, 2010
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Geoff Barrett, Richard Porter
  • Patent number: 7640151
    Abstract: A method and system for simulation of an electronic circuit is provided, the circuit being represented by a network of a plurality of logic elements, the circuit comprising first and second asynchronous clock domains, whereby jitter elements are additionally inserted at predetermined portions of circuit boundaries between the first and second clock domains, the jitter elements being represented as logic elements, the values of which are randomly set.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2004
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2009
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Simon Smith, Geoff Barrett, Martin Vickers
  • Patent number: 7567892
    Abstract: Techniques directed to realizing and verifying a logic model design are provided by first dividing the logic model design into two or more logic portions. The various model portions can then realized to form various realized logic portions. A first realized logic portion can then be wrapped and formally verified against its respective model. The wrapper can then be verified by first applying the wrapper to a second logic model portion and a second realized logic portion, then formally verifying them against each other. The resulting output can then be used to prove wrapper correctness.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2002
    Date of Patent: July 28, 2009
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Geoff Barrett, Simon Christopher Dequin Clemow, Andrew Jon Dawson
  • Patent number: 7149663
    Abstract: A method for selecting an order in which to sift variables in a binary decision diagram. The method includes an act of arranging the variables of the binary decision diagram on nodes of a graph, with the nodes of the graph being labeled with the variables of the system such that a set of functions labeling the leaves reachable from a node correspond to the set of functions which depend on the variables labeling the node. The method further includes an act of traversing the graph in a depth first manner to produce a list of the labels in the selected order.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 1998
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2006
    Assignee: SGS-Thomson Microelectronics Limited
    Inventor: Geoff Barrett
  • Patent number: 7143073
    Abstract: The invention relates to generating a test suite of instructions for testing the operation of a processor. A fuzzy finite state machine with a plurality of states 2 and transitions 4 determined by weights W1, W2 . . . W10 is used to generate a sequence of instructions. The weights determine the next state as well as an instruction and operands for each state. The weights may be adapted based on the generated sequence and further sequences are generated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 4, 2002
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2006
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventor: Geoff Barrett
  • Publication number: 20050222832
    Abstract: A method and system for simulation of an electronic circuit is provided, the circuit being represented by a network of a plurality of logic elements, the circuit comprising first and second asynchronous clock domains, whereby jitter elements are additionally inserted at predetermined portions of circuit boundaries between the first and second clock domains, the jitter elements being represented as logic elements, the values of which are randomly set.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 30, 2004
    Publication date: October 6, 2005
    Applicant: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Simon Smith, Geoff Barrett, Martin Vickers
  • Publication number: 20050060577
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a device for an interrupt verification support mechanism and the method for operating said device comprising a processor and an input for external interrupt requests or interrupt pseudo-instructions communicatively coupled to the processor. The method comprises the steps of processing at least one actual instruction in the processor in an instruction pipeline, and if an external interrupt request is received by the processor, the actual instruction is replaced with the pseudo-instruction. Pursuant to the method, instructions are concurrently processed in the processor in an instruction pipeline with several stages. In the instruction pipeline, instructions are processed by an instruction fetch stage, an instruction decode stage, an instruction issue stage, an execute stage and a result write-back stage. Thereby, interrupt requests are only processed at the fetch stage of the instruction pipeline.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 17, 2003
    Publication date: March 17, 2005
    Inventors: Geoff Barrett, Richard Porter
  • Patent number: 6816821
    Abstract: A device for synthesizing a reverse model of a system includes a first store storing bits representative of transition functions of the system, a second store storing bits representative of an estimate of transition functions of the reverse model, and processing system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 1999
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2004
    Assignee: STMicroelectronics Limited
    Inventor: Geoff Barrett
  • Publication number: 20030225557
    Abstract: Techniques directed to realizing and verifying a logic model design are provided by first dividing the logic model design into two or more logic portions. The various model portions can then realized to form various realized logic portions. A first realized logic portion can then be wrapped and formally verified against it's respective model. The wrapper can then be verified by first applying the wrapper to a second logic model portion and a second realized logic portion, then formally verifying them against each other. The resulting output can then be prove wrapper correctness.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 31, 2002
    Publication date: December 4, 2003
    Applicant: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Geoff Barrett, Simon Christopher Dequin Clemow, Andrew Jon Dawson
  • Publication number: 20030191985
    Abstract: The invention relates to generating a test suite of instructions for testing the operation of a processor. A fuzzy finite state machine with a plurality of states 2 and transitions 4 determined by weights W1, W2 . . . W10 is used to generate a sequence of instructions. The weights determine the next state as well as an instruction and operands for each state. The weights may be adapted based on the generated sequence and further sequences are generated.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 4, 2002
    Publication date: October 9, 2003
    Applicant: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventor: Geoff Barrett
  • Patent number: 6134512
    Abstract: A system for representing a physical environment comprises a first store for holding a set of state bits, a second store for holding a set of input bits, an input device for inputting a set of initial states of said state bits into said first store, means for implementing a set of state transition functions for manipulating said input bits and said state bits, and means for generating input bits satisfying a set of constrains representing restrictions on the physical environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 24, 1997
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2000
    Assignee: SGS-Thomson Microelectronics Limited
    Inventor: Geoff Barrett
  • Patent number: 6031983
    Abstract: A device for synthesizing a reverse model of a system includes a first store storing bits representative of transition functions of the system, a second store storing bits representative of an estimate of transition functions of the reverse model, and processing system. The processing system comprises a logical device for transforming the transition functions of the system into constraints on the reverse model, and a parameterization processor for applying a parameterization of the constraints to the estimate of transition functions of reverse system to form transition functions of the reverse model.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 1998
    Date of Patent: February 29, 2000
    Assignee: SGS-Thomson Microelectronics Limited
    Inventor: Geoff Barrett