Patents by Inventor Kai Chirca

Kai Chirca 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: 11243883
    Abstract: A method includes receiving, by a level two (L2) controller, a first request for a cache line in a shared cache coherence state; mapping, by the L2 controller, the first request to a second request for a cache line in an exclusive cache coherence state; and responding, by the L2 controller, to the second request.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 22, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 8, 2022
    Assignee: Texas Instruments Incorporated
    Inventors: Abhijeet Ashok Chachad, David Matthew Thompson, Timothy David Anderson, Kai Chirca
  • Patent number: 11237968
    Abstract: Techniques including receiving configuration information for a trigger control channel of the one or more trigger control channels, the configuration information defining a first one or more triggering events, receiving a first memory management command, store the first memory management command, detecting a first one or more triggering events, and triggering the stored first memory management command based on the detected first one or more triggering events.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 1, 2022
    Assignee: TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED
    Inventors: Kai Chirca, Matthew David Pierson, David E. Smith, Timothy David Anderson
  • Publication number: 20220027275
    Abstract: In described examples, a processor system includes a processor core generating memory transactions, a lower level cache memory with a lower memory controller, and a higher level cache memory with a higher memory controller having a memory pipeline. The higher memory controller is connected to the lower memory controller by a bypass path that skips the memory pipeline. The higher memory controller: determines whether a memory transaction is a bypass write, which is a memory write request indicated not to result in a corresponding write being directed to the higher level cache memory; if the memory transaction is determined a bypass write, determines whether a memory transaction that prevents passing is in the memory pipeline; and if no transaction that prevents passing is determined to be in the memory pipeline, sends the memory transaction to the lower memory controller using the bypass path.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 4, 2021
    Publication date: January 27, 2022
    Inventors: Abhijeet Ashok Chachad, Timothy David Anderson, Kai Chirca, David Matthew Thompson
  • Publication number: 20210406014
    Abstract: A stream of data is accessed from a memory system using a stream of addresses generated in a first mode of operating a streaming engine in response to executing a first stream instruction. A block cache management operation is performed on a cache in the memory using a block of addresses generated in a second mode of operating the streaming engine in response to executing a second stream instruction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 13, 2021
    Publication date: December 30, 2021
    Inventors: Joseph Raymond Michael Zbiciak, Timothy David Anderson, Jonathan (Son) Hung Tran, Kai Chirca, Daniel Wu, Abhijeet Ashok Chachad, David M. Thompson
  • Patent number: 11212256
    Abstract: A flexible hybrid firewall architecture is disclosed. A system implementing such an architecture includes an access control register, a memory having at least a region to which access is controllable by the access control register, the access control register including first field that contains a privilege identifier (ID) and a plurality of additional fields, each additional field containing control bits corresponding to a respective one of a plurality of permission levels, and control circuitry that, in response to receiving a transaction containing a transaction privilege ID, a security indicator, and a privilege indicator, controls access to the region when the transaction privilege ID matches the privilege ID contained in the first field by using the control bits of a field of the additional fields that corresponds to a security level indicated by the security indicator and a privilege level indicated by the privilege indicator of the transaction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 28, 2021
    Assignee: TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED
    Inventors: Amritpal Singh Mundra, Brian J. Karguth, Timothy Anderson, Kai Chirca, Charles Fuoco
  • Publication number: 20210382822
    Abstract: A device includes a data path, a first interface configured to receive a first memory access request from a first peripheral device, and a second interface configured to receive a second memory access request from a second peripheral device. The device further includes an arbiter circuit configured to, in a first clock cycle, a pre-arbitration winner between a first memory access request and a second memory access request based on a first number of credits allocated to a first destination device and a second number of credits allocated to a second destination device. The arbiter circuit is further configured to, in a second clock cycle select a final arbitration winner from among the pre-arbitration winner and a subsequent memory access request based on a comparison of a priority of the pre-arbitration winner and a priority of the subsequent memory access request.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 23, 2021
    Publication date: December 9, 2021
    Inventors: Matthew David PIERSON, Daniel WU, Kai CHIRCA
  • Publication number: 20210357226
    Abstract: A digital signal processor having a CPU with a program counter register and, optionally, an event context stack pointer register for saving and restoring the event handler context when higher priority event preempts a lower priority event handler. The CPU is configured to use a minimized set of addressing modes that includes using the event context stack pointer register and program counter register to compute an address for storing data in memory. The CPU may also eliminate post-decrement, pre-increment and post-decrement addressing and rely only on post-increment addressing.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 28, 2021
    Publication date: November 18, 2021
    Inventors: Timothy David ANDERSON, Duc Quang BUI, Joseph ZBICIAK, Kai CHIRCA
  • Publication number: 20210349827
    Abstract: A prefetch unit generates a prefetch address in response to an address associated with a memory read request received from the first or second cache. The prefetch unit includes a prefetch buffer that is arranged to store the prefetch address in an address buffer of a selected slot of the prefetch buffer, where each slot of the prefetch unit includes a buffer for storing a prefetch address, and two sub-slots. Each sub-slot includes a data buffer for storing data that is prefetched using the prefetch address stored in the slot, and one of the two sub-slots of the slot is selected in response to a portion of the generated prefetch address. Subsequent hits on the prefetcher result in returning prefetched data to the requestor in response to a subsequent memory read request received after the initial received memory read request.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 26, 2021
    Publication date: November 11, 2021
    Inventors: Kai CHIRCA, Joseph R. M. ZBICIAK, Matthew D. PIERSON
  • Publication number: 20210349821
    Abstract: Techniques for loading data, comprising receiving a memory management command to perform a memory management operation to load data into the cache memory before execution of an instruction that requests the data, formatting the memory management command into one or more instruction for a cache controller associated with the cache memory, and outputting an instruction to the cache controller to load the data into the cache memory based on the memory management command.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 20, 2021
    Publication date: November 11, 2021
    Inventors: Kai CHIRCA, Daniel WU, Matthew David PIERSON
  • Publication number: 20210334103
    Abstract: A nested loop controller includes a first register having a first value initialized to an initial first value, a second register having a second value initialized to an initial second value, and a third register configured as a predicate FIFO, initialized to have a third value. The second value is advanced in response to a tick instruction during execution of a loop. In response to the second value reaching a second threshold, the second register is reset to the initial second value. The nested loop controller further includes a comparator coupled to the second register and to the predicate FIFO and configured to provide an outer loop indicator value as input to the predicate FIFO when the second value is equal to the second threshold, and provide an inner loop indicator value as input to the predicate FIFO when the second value is not equal to the second threshold.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 4, 2021
    Publication date: October 28, 2021
    Inventors: Kai Chirca, Timothy D. Anderson, Todd T. Hahn, Alan L. Davis
  • Publication number: 20210334337
    Abstract: A method for performing a fundamental computational primitive in a device is provided, where the device includes a processor and a matrix multiplication accelerator (MMA). The method includes configuring a streaming engine in the device to stream data for the fundamental computational primitive from memory, configuring the MMA to format the data, and executing the fundamental computational primitive by the device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 4, 2021
    Publication date: October 28, 2021
    Inventors: Arthur John Redfern, Timothy David Anderson, Kai Chirca, Chenchi Luo, Zhenhua Yu
  • Publication number: 20210326260
    Abstract: Techniques for accessing memory by a memory controller, comprising receiving, by the memory controller, a memory management command to perform a memory management operation at a virtual memory address, translating the virtual memory address to a physical memory address, wherein the physical memory address comprises an address within a cache memory, and outputting an instruction to the cache memory based on the memory management command and the physical memory address.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 30, 2021
    Publication date: October 21, 2021
    Inventors: Kai CHIRCA, Timothy David ANDERSON, Joseph ZBICIAK, David E. SMITH, Matthew David PIERSON
  • Patent number: 11138117
    Abstract: In described examples, a processor system includes a processor core generating memory transactions, a lower level cache memory with a lower memory controller, and a higher level cache memory with a higher memory controller having a memory pipeline. The higher memory controller is connected to the lower memory controller by a bypass path that skips the memory pipeline. The higher memory controller: determines whether a memory transaction is a bypass write, which is a memory write request indicated not to result in a corresponding write being directed to the higher level cache memory; if the memory transaction is determined a bypass write, determines whether a memory transaction that prevents passing is in the memory pipeline; and if no transaction that prevents passing is determined to be in the memory pipeline, sends the memory transaction to the lower memory controller using the bypass path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 5, 2021
    Assignee: Texas Instruments Incorporated
    Inventors: Abhijeet Ashok Chachad, Timothy David Anderson, Kai Chirca, David Matthew Thompson
  • Patent number: 11119776
    Abstract: A stream of data is accessed from a memory system using a stream of addresses generated in a first mode of operating a streaming engine in response to executing a first stream instruction. A block cache management operation is performed on a cache in the memory using a block of addresses generated in a second mode of operating the streaming engine in response to executing a second stream instruction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 14, 2021
    Assignee: Texas Instruments Incorporated
    Inventors: Joseph Raymond Michael Zbiciak, Timothy David Anderson, Jonathan (Son) Hung Tran, Kai Chirca, Daniel Wu, Abhijeet Ashok Chachad, David M. Thompson
  • Patent number: 11106463
    Abstract: A digital signal processor having a CPU with a program counter register and, optionally, an event context stack pointer register for saving and restoring the event handler context when higher priority event preempts a lower priority event handler. The CPU is configured to use a minimized set of addressing modes that includes using the event context stack pointer register and program counter register to compute an address for storing data in memory. The CPU may also eliminate post-decrement, pre-increment and post-decrement addressing and rely only on post-increment addressing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 24, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 31, 2021
    Assignee: TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED
    Inventors: Timothy David Anderson, Duc Quang Bui, Joseph Zbiciak, Kai Chirca
  • Patent number: 11099993
    Abstract: Techniques for loading data, comprising receiving a memory management command to perform a memory management operation to load data into the cache memory before execution of an instruction that requests the data, formatting the memory management command into one or more instruction for a cache controller associated with the cache memory, and outputting an instruction to the cache controller to load the data into the cache memory based on the memory management command.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 24, 2021
    Assignee: TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED
    Inventors: Kai Chirca, Daniel Wu, Matthew David Pierson
  • Patent number: 11099994
    Abstract: A device includes a data path, a first interface configured to receive a first memory access request from a first peripheral device, and a second interface configured to receive a second memory access request from a second peripheral device. The device further includes an arbiter circuit configured to, in a first clock cycle, a pre-arbitration winner between a first memory access request and a second memory access request based on a first number of credits allocated to a first destination device and a second number of credits allocated to a second destination device. The arbiter circuit is further configured to, in a second clock cycle select a final arbitration winner from among the pre-arbitration winner and a subsequent memory access request based on a comparison of a priority of the pre-arbitration winner and a priority of the subsequent memory access request.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 9, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 24, 2021
    Assignee: Texas Instmments Incorporated
    Inventors: Matthew David Pierson, Daniel Wu, Kai Chirca
  • Publication number: 20210247980
    Abstract: Techniques related to executing a plurality of instructions by a processor comprising receiving a first instruction for execution on an instruction execution pipeline, beginning execution of the first instruction, receiving one or more second instructions for execution on the instruction execution pipeline, the one or more second instructions associated with a higher priority task than the first instruction, storing a register state associated with the execution of the first instruction in one or more registers of a capture queue associated with the instruction execution pipeline, copying the register state from the capture queue to a memory, determining that the one or more second instructions have been executed, copying the register state from the memory to the one or more registers of the capture queue, and restoring the register state to the instruction execution pipeline from the capture queue.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 27, 2021
    Publication date: August 12, 2021
    Inventors: Timothy D. ANDERSON, Joseph ZBICIAK, Kai CHIRCA
  • Patent number: 11086967
    Abstract: A method for performing a fundamental computational primitive in a device is provided, where the device includes a processor and a matrix multiplication accelerator (MMA). The method includes configuring a streaming engine in the device to stream data for the fundamental computational primitive from memory, configuring the MMA to format the data, and executing the fundamental computational primitive by the device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 10, 2021
    Assignee: TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED
    Inventors: Arthur John Redfern, Timothy David Anderson, Kai Chirca, Chenchi Luo, Zhenhua Yu
  • Patent number: 11086778
    Abstract: Techniques for accessing memory by a memory controller, comprising receiving, by the memory controller, a memory management command to perform a memory management operation at a virtual memory address, translating the virtual memory address to a physical memory address, wherein the physical memory address comprises an address within a cache memory, and outputting an instruction to the cache memory based on the memory management command and the physical memory address.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 10, 2021
    Assignee: TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED
    Inventors: Kai Chirca, Timothy David Anderson, Joseph Zbiciak, David E. Smith, Matthew David Pierson