Patents by Inventor Paul Lu

Paul Lu 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: 7856618
    Abstract: A program feature set is compared to a processor feature set. The comparison may be performed in response to restoring the program onto a system or requesting its execution. The processor feature set represents zero, one or more optional hardware features supported by the processor, whereas the program feature set represents zero, one or more optional hardware features the program relies upon in its generated code. Comparison of the feature sets determines whether a particular program may run on a particular processor. Programs may be automatically or manually rebuilt to achieve full compatibility. If the comparison indicates that the program requires a feature not supported by the processor, the program is rebuilt based on the processor feature set. Alternatively, the program may be rebuilt in response to a rebuild request, rather than the comparison. The program is preferably rebuilt from an intermediate representation (IR) stored with or locatable from the program.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 2005
    Date of Patent: December 21, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Robert John Donovan, Paul Lu Verne Godtland, Sherri Lynn McMeeking, Joseph Patrick Reynolds, Scott Thomas Robinson, Robert Ralph Roediger, William Jon Schmidt, Roger Wayne Southwick
  • Publication number: 20090203410
    Abstract: A method for managing operation of a device is disclosed and may include performing the following using one or more processors and/or circuits in a handheld multistandard communication system, the one or more processors and/or circuits comprising a control device and one or more other devices: receiving from the control device, one or more power setting signals indicative of a desired power level setting. The handheld multistandard communication system may operate utilizing a NORMAL power level setting or a standby setting. The standby setting may include a LOW power level setting and a sleep mode setting. One or more corresponding power adjustment signals may be generated based on the received one or more power setting signals. Power supplied to the control device and/or the one or more other devices may be adjusted based on the generated one or more corresponding power adjustment signals.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 21, 2009
    Publication date: August 13, 2009
    Inventor: Paul Lu
  • Patent number: 7522941
    Abstract: Method and apparatus for managing power consumption within a handheld multistandard communication system are disclosed and may comprise receiving a power setting signal from a control device within the handheld multistandard communication system. The power setting signal may indicate a desired power level setting. In accordance with the power setting signal, power supplied to at least one device within the handheld multistandard communication system may be adjusted based on a generated power adjustment signal. The power adjustment signal may control the power supplied to the device. The adjusted power supplied to the at least one device within the handheld multistandard communication system may correspond to one or more power level settings. The power level settings may comprise a NORMAL operating power level setting and/or a LOW power level setting.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 23, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2009
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventor: Paul Lu
  • Patent number: 7496774
    Abstract: Reducing power while in standby mode may comprise monitoring for an occurrence of at least one event requiring a transition out of a standby mode while utilizing a lower frequency, less accurate, and low power standby clock signal while operating in the standby mode. After receiving the occurrence of the event, an identity of the received event may be determined. In response to receiving the event, based on the determined identity of the event, a first and/or a second clock signal may be enabled, which has higher frequency and better accuracy and consumes more power than the standby clock signal. If the first and/or second clock signal is enabled, they may be disabled in order to re-enter the standby mode, which utilizes the standby clock signal while in standby mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 2004
    Date of Patent: February 24, 2009
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventor: Paul Lu
  • Patent number: 7437583
    Abstract: Distributing clock signals within an electronic device may comprise determining a status of at least one gate that controls flow of a clock signal to at least one device coupled to the gate. One or more of the gates may be controlled based on this determined status and it may be determined whether the devices coupled to the gate are active or inactive. One or more gates that control the flow of the clock signal to the device may be turned OFF if the device is inactive. The status of one or more of the gates may be read from one or more registers mapped to the gates. One or more gates that control one or more active devices may be prevented from being deactivated based on the determined status of the gates. A current hardware setting of a gate may be overridden via software control.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 2004
    Date of Patent: October 14, 2008
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventor: Paul Lu
  • Publication number: 20070073927
    Abstract: Certain embodiments of a method and apparatus for high throughput mass storage device interface in a microprocessor for handheld systems may comprise interleaving accesses to a plurality of mass storage devices communicatively coupled to a portable media processing device. Interleaved transfer may occur of data corresponding to the interleaved accesses to the plurality of mass storage devices communicatively coupled to the portable media processing device. At least a portion of the plurality of mass storage devices may be communicatively coupled internally to the portable media processing device. A remaining portion of the plurality of mass storage devices may be communicatively coupled externally to the portable media processing device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 7, 2005
    Publication date: March 29, 2007
    Inventor: Paul Lu
  • Publication number: 20060276148
    Abstract: Method and apparatus for managing power consumption within a handheld multistandard communication system are disclosed and may comprise receiving a power setting signal from a control device within the handheld multistandard communication system. The power setting signal may indicate a desired power level setting. In accordance with the power setting signal, power supplied to at least one device within the handheld multistandard communication system may be adjusted based on a generated power adjustment signal. The power adjustment signal may control the power supplied to the device. The adjusted power supplied to the at least one device within the handheld multistandard communication system may correspond to one or more power level settings. The power level settings may comprise a NORMAL operating power level setting and/or a LOW power level setting.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 23, 2005
    Publication date: December 7, 2006
    Inventor: Paul Lu
  • Publication number: 20060205373
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for generating clocks for a handheld multistandard communication system are disclosed herein and may comprise receiving an input clock signal from a clock source whose accuracy is controlled by a selected device in a handheld multistandard communication system. The selected device may be characterized with a highest accuracy requirement among a plurality of devices. A main clock signal for at least one of the plurality of devices may be generated utilizing the received input clock signal. The generated main clock signal may be supplied to the plurality of devices within the handheld multistandard communication system in response to receiving a request from one of the plurality of devices. A real-time clock signal may be generated for low-power mode operation of the devices. The real-time clock signal may be generated by a real-time clock signal source and may be supplied to each device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 14, 2005
    Publication date: September 14, 2006
    Inventor: Paul Lu
  • Publication number: 20060176954
    Abstract: Methods and systems for processing video data are provided herein. Aspects of the method may comprise receiving on a chip, a plurality of video frames and storing a portion of the received video frames in a memory on the chip. A first portion of the stored video frames may be decoded on the chip and a second portion of the stored video frames may be encoded on the chip during the decoding. A third portion of the stored video frames may be converted from an input video format to a YUV video format. A reference frame corresponding to the converted third portion may be identified from the stored video frames. After conversion, the converted third portion of the received video frames may be utilized as the reference frame for estimating/encoding, or compensating/decoding temporal motion of the subsequently received video frames.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 7, 2005
    Publication date: August 10, 2006
    Inventors: Paul Lu, Weiping Pan
  • Publication number: 20060176955
    Abstract: Methods and systems for on-chip processing of video data are disclosed herein. In one aspect of the method, a plurality of lines in a current video frame may be received on a chip. A portion of a plurality of previously processed video frames, occurring prior to the plurality of lines in the current video frame, may be stored in a first memory outside the chip. A portion of the received plurality of lines in the current video frame may be stored in a memory on the chip. A first portion of the received plurality of lines in the current video frame may be encoded on the chip utilizing the stored portion of the previously processed video frames. The stored portion of the received plurality of lines in the current video frame may be converted to YUV format.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 7, 2005
    Publication date: August 10, 2006
    Inventors: Paul Lu, Weiping Pan
  • Publication number: 20060176959
    Abstract: Methods and systems for processing video data are provided herein and may comprise receiving input video information to be processed and matching a portion of the received input video information against a portion of stored indexed video information entries having a corresponding variable length code whose length varies among stored indexed video information entries. An output encoded bitstream may be generated utilizing a portion of the variable length code corresponding to the matched portion of the indexed video information to be processed. The indexed video information entries may be stored in a content addressable memory (CAM). Each bit of the indexed video information entries may be stored utilizing a content bit and/or a “don't care” indicator bit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 7, 2005
    Publication date: August 10, 2006
    Inventors: Paul Lu, Weiping Pan
  • Publication number: 20060176960
    Abstract: Methods and systems for processing video data are provided herein and may comprise receiving an input encoded bitstream to be processed. A portion of the received input encoded bitstream may be matched against stored indexed variable length code entries having a corresponding video information entry. If a match is found, the matched portion may be removed from the input encoded bitstream. The matching and/or the removing may be offloaded to at least one on-chip coprocessor. The coprocessor may comprise a table look-up (TLU) module with a plurality of on-chip memories, such as RAM, and may be adapted to store one or more entries from a VLC encoding/decoding table. For example, an on-chip memory may be utilized to store a VLC code entry and another on-chip memory may be utilized to store the corresponding VLC code entry attributes that each code may represent, such as LAST, RUN, and LEVEL entries.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 7, 2005
    Publication date: August 10, 2006
    Inventors: Paul Lu, Weiping Pan
  • Publication number: 20060146933
    Abstract: Methods and systems for processing video data are disclosed herein and may comprise offloading motion estimation, motion separation, and motion compensation macroblock functions from a central processor to at least one on-chip processor for processing. For a current macroblock, reference video information may be generated via the on-chip processor by determining sum absolute difference between at least a portion of the current macroblock and at least a portion of a current search area comprising a plurality of macroblocks. Stored at least a portion of the current macroblock and/or the current search area may be received from an external memory and/or from an internal memory integrated with the on-chip processor. The sum absolute difference may be determined based on pixel luminance information corresponding to at least a portion of the current macroblock and at least a portion of the current search area.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 7, 2005
    Publication date: July 6, 2006
    Inventors: Paul Lu, Weiping Pan
  • Publication number: 20050283650
    Abstract: A method and system for ensuring data integrity in a data processing system may comprise monitoring when data for a specified device is available for error correction code generation, and receiving a first indication of the specified device, a second indication of the data, and a third indication of a size of the data during the monitoring. A new error correction code may be generated in hardware for the data based on the indicated size of the data and an indication may be provided to signal when generation of the new error correction code for a specified number of accesses for at least a portion of the data is complete. Detected errors may be corrected in software based on the newly generated error correction code. The first indication may be a device selection signal and the error correction code generation may be enabled or disabled via an enable signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 16, 2004
    Publication date: December 22, 2005
    Inventors: Yan Zhang, Paul Lu, Yue Chen
  • Publication number: 20050273640
    Abstract: Distributing clock signals within an electronic device may comprise determining a status of at least one gate that controls flow of a clock signal to at least one device coupled to the gate. One or more of the gates may be controlled based on this determined status and it may be determined whether the devices coupled to the gate are active or inactive. One or more gates that control the flow of the clock signal to the device may be turned OFF if the device is inactive. The status of one or more of the gates may be read from one or more registers mapped to the gates. One or more gates that control one or more active devices may be prevented from being deactivated based on the determined status of the gates. A current hardware setting of a gate may be overridden via software control.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 1, 2004
    Publication date: December 8, 2005
    Inventor: Paul Lu
  • Publication number: 20050273637
    Abstract: Reducing power while in standby mode may comprise monitoring for an occurrence of at least one event requiring a transition out of a standby mode while utilizing a lower frequency, less accurate, and low power standby clock signal while operating in the standby mode. After receiving the occurrence of the event, an identity of the received event may be determined. In response to receiving the event, based on the determined identity of the event, a first and/or a second clock signal may be enabled, which has higher frequency and better accuracy and consumes more power than the standby clock signal. If the first and/or second clock signal is enabled, they may be disabled in order to re-enter the standby mode, which utilizes the standby clock signal while in standby mode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 1, 2004
    Publication date: December 8, 2005
    Inventor: Paul Lu