Patents by Inventor Philip Lyon Northcott

Philip Lyon Northcott 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: 9208018
    Abstract: Apparatus and methods provide relatively low uncorrectable bit error rates, low write amplification, long life, fast and efficient retrieval, and efficient storage density such that a solid-state drive (SSD) can be reliably implemented using various types of memory cells, including relatively inexpensive multi-level cell flash. One embodiment intelligently coordinates remapping of bad blocks with error correction code control, which eliminates the tables used to avoid bad blocks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2015
    Assignee: PMC-Sierra, Inc.
    Inventors: Philip Lyon Northcott, Peter Graumann, Stephen Bates
  • Patent number: 9170876
    Abstract: A method of decoding a primary codeword and a set of secondary codewords stored in a non-volatile memory (NVM), which includes reading, from the NVM, the primary codeword and all the secondary codewords and storing them in a second memory. The primary codeword is then read from the second memory and decoded, utilizing a soft-decision decoder, based on a log-likelihood ratio (LLR) vector. When the decoding of the primary codeword is unsuccessful: each secondary codeword of the set of secondary codewords is read from the second memory and decoded, utilizing a hard-decision decoder, to identify and correct errored data bits in the each secondary codeword and to determine a location of each errored data bit in the primary codeword. An adjusted LLR vector is generated by adjusting the LLR for each primary codeword data bit based on the determined locations of the errored data bits in the primary codeword.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 27, 2015
    Assignee: PMC-Sierra US, Inc.
    Inventors: Stephen Bates, Peter Graumann, Philip Lyon Northcott, Sean Gregory Gibb
  • Patent number: 9081701
    Abstract: Apparatus and methods provide relatively low uncorrectable bit error rates, low write amplification, long life, fast and efficient retrieval, and efficient storage density such that a solid-state drive (SSD) can be reliably implemented using various types of memory cells, including relatively inexpensive multi-level cell flash. One embodiment intelligently coordinates remapping of bad blocks with error correction code control, which eliminates the tables used to avoid bad blocks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 14, 2015
    Assignee: PMC-Sierra, Inc.
    Inventors: Philip Lyon Northcott, Peter Graumann, Stephen Bates
  • Patent number: 9053012
    Abstract: Apparatus and methods provide relatively low uncorrectable bit error rates, low write amplification, long life, fast and efficient retrieval, and efficient storage density such that a solid-state drive (SSD) can be reliably implemented using various types of memory cells, including relatively inexpensive multi-level cell flash. One embodiment intelligently coordinates remapping of bad blocks with error correction code control, which eliminates the tables used to avoid bad blocks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 9, 2015
    Assignee: PMC-Sierra, Inc.
    Inventors: Philip Lyon Northcott, Peter Graumann, Stephen Bates
  • Patent number: 9026867
    Abstract: Apparatus and methods provide relatively low uncorrectable bit error rates, low write amplification, long life, fast and efficient retrieval, and efficient storage density such that a solid-state drive (SSD) can be reliably implemented using various types of memory cells, including relatively inexpensive multi-level cell flash. One embodiment intelligently coordinates remapping of bad blocks with error correction code control, which eliminates the tables used to avoid bad blocks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2015
    Assignee: PMC-Sierra, Inc.
    Inventors: Philip Lyon Northcott, Peter Graumann, Stephen Bates
  • Patent number: 9009565
    Abstract: Apparatus and methods provide relatively low uncorrectable bit error rates, low write amplification, long life, fast and efficient retrieval, and efficient storage density such that a solid-state drive (SSD) can be reliably implemented using various types of memory cells, including relatively inexpensive multi-level cell flash. One embodiment intelligently coordinates remapping of bad blocks with error correction code control, which eliminates the tables used to avoid bad blocks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2015
    Assignee: PMC-Sierra, Inc.
    Inventors: Philip Lyon Northcott, Peter Graumann, Stephen Bates
  • Patent number: 8533546
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides systems and methods for testing an integrated circuit or device under test (DUT). A DUT of the present invention has a plurality of scan chains, a plurality of shift register elements each associated with a respective one of the scan chains, and a programmable switch matrix to configure shift register elements of a subset of the plurality of shift register elements to cause one shift register element of the subset to receive an interleaved test sequence, and to cause the interleaved test sequence to be shifted to other shift register elements in the subset, and to input deinterleaved test sequences to scan chains associated with the subset.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2013
    Assignee: PMC-Sierra US, Inc.
    Inventors: Kenneth William Ferguson, Steven Yu Peng Ng, Bradley Burke, Michel Duchesneau, Aaron John Dennis, Philip Lyon Northcott, Kenneth David Wagner
  • Patent number: 6697332
    Abstract: Forward performance monitoring cells are inserted into a processing queue coupled to an access controller. A plurality of ATM cell input sources are coupled to the controller. Each source supports a plurality of ATM connections. The controller controllably admits cells from the input sources into the queue. Before a forward performance monitoring cell corresponding to a particular ATM connection is inserted into the queue, an interim cell corresponding to that connection is first transmitted to the controller, which controllably admits the interim cell into the queue. The queue is monitored to detect the presence of the interim cell in the queue, without interrupting maintenance of counts for the respective ATM connections. Then, while the interim cell remains within the queue, the count for the ATM connection corresponding to that interim cell is stored in the interim cell, thereby converting the interim cell into the desired forward performance monitoring cell.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 2000
    Date of Patent: February 24, 2004
    Assignee: PMC-Sierra, Inc.
    Inventor: Philip Lyon Northcott