Patents by Inventor Ray Bittner

Ray Bittner 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: 11822899
    Abstract: Apparatus and methods are disclosed for performing block floating-point (BFP) operations, including in implementations of neural networks. All or a portion of one or more matrices or vectors can share one or more common exponents. Techniques are disclosed for selecting the shared common exponents. In some examples of the disclosed technology, a method includes producing BFP representations of matrices or vectors, at least two elements of the respective matrices or vectors sharing a common exponent, performing a mathematical operation on two or more of the plurality of matrices or vectors, and producing an output matrix or vector. Based on the output matrix or vector, one or more updated common exponents are selected, and an updated matrix or vector is produced having some elements that share the updated common exponents.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2023
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Ray Bittner, Alessandro Forin
  • Patent number: 11107548
    Abstract: Embodiments are described that leverage variability of a chip. Different areas of a chip vary in terms of reliability under a same operating condition. The variability may be captured by measuring errors over different areas of the chip. A physical factor that affects or controls the likelihood of an error on the chip can be varied. For example, the voltage supplied to a chip may be provided at different levels. At each level of the physical factor, the chip is tested for errors within the regions. Some indication of the error statistics for the regions is stored and then used to adjust power used by the chip, to adjust reliability behavior of the chip, to allow applications to control how the chip is used, to compute a signature uniquely identifying the chip, etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 10, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 31, 2021
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Benjamin Zorn, Ray Bittner, Darko Kirovski, Karthik Pattabiraman
  • Publication number: 20200342950
    Abstract: Embodiments are described that leverage variability of a chip. Different areas of a chip vary in terms of reliability under a same operating condition. The variability may be captured by measuring errors over different areas of the chip. A physical factor that affects or controls the likelihood of an error on the chip can be varied. For example, the voltage supplied to a chip may be provided at different levels. At each level of the physical factor, the chip is tested for errors within the regions. Some indication of the error statistics for the regions is stored and then used to adjust power used by the chip, to adjust reliability behavior of the chip, to allow applications to control how the chip is used, to compute a signature uniquely identifying the chip, etc.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 10, 2020
    Publication date: October 29, 2020
    Inventors: Benjamin Zorn, Ray Bittner, Darko Kirovski, Karthik Pattabiraman
  • Patent number: 10748640
    Abstract: Embodiments are described that leverage variability of a chip. Different areas of a chip vary in terms of reliability under a same operating condition. The variability may be captured by measuring errors over different areas of the chip. A physical factor that affects or controls the likelihood of an error on the chip can be varied. For example, the voltage supplied to a chip may be provided at different levels. At each level of the physical factor, the chip is tested for errors within the regions. Some indication of the error statistics for the regions is stored and then used to adjust power used by the chip, to adjust reliability behavior of the chip, to allow applications to control how the chip is used, to compute a signature uniquely identifying the chip, etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 18, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 18, 2020
    Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
    Inventors: Benjamin Zorn, Ray Bittner, Darko Kirovski, Karthik Pattabiraman
  • Publication number: 20200159493
    Abstract: Apparatus and methods are disclosed for performing block floating-point (BFP) operations, including in implementations of neural networks. All or a portion of one or more matrices or vectors can share one or more common exponents. Techniques are disclosed for selecting the shared common exponents. In some examples of the disclosed technology, a method includes producing BFP representations of matrices or vectors, at least two elements of the respective matrices or vectors sharing a common exponent, performing a mathematical operation on two or more of the plurality of matrices or vectors, and producing an output matrix or vector. Based on the output matrix or vector, one or more updated common exponents are selected, and an updated matrix or vector is produced having some elements that share the updated common exponents.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 20, 2019
    Publication date: May 21, 2020
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Ray Bittner, Alessandro Forin
  • Patent number: 10552935
    Abstract: A system may include a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) and a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The system may further include a bus interface that is external to the FPGA, and that is configured to transfer data directly between the GPU and the FPGA without storing the data in a memory of a central processing unit (CPU) as an intermediary operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 5, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2020
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Ray Bittner, Erik S. Ruf
  • Patent number: 10528321
    Abstract: Apparatus and methods are disclosed for performing block floating-point (BFP) operations, including in implementations of neural networks. All or a portion of one or more matrices or vectors can share one or more common exponents. Techniques are disclosed for selecting the shared common exponents. In some examples of the disclosed technology, a method includes producing BFP representations of matrices or vectors, at least two elements of the respective matrices or vectors sharing a common exponent, performing a mathematical operation on two or more of the plurality of matrices or vectors, and producing an output matrix or vector. Based on the output matrix or vector, one or more updated common exponents are selected, and an updated matrix or vector is produced having some elements that share the updated common exponents.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2020
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Ray Bittner, Alessandro Forin
  • Publication number: 20190318799
    Abstract: Embodiments are described that leverage variability of a chip. Different areas of a chip vary in terms of reliability under a same operating condition. The variability may be captured by measuring errors over different areas of the chip. A physical factor that affects or controls the likelihood of an error on the chip can be varied. For example, the voltage supplied to a chip may be provided at different levels. At each level of the physical factor, the chip is tested for errors within the regions. Some indication of the error statistics for the regions is stored and then used to adjust power used by the chip, to adjust reliability behavior of the chip, to allow applications to control how the chip is used, to compute a signature uniquely identifying the chip, etc.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 18, 2018
    Publication date: October 17, 2019
    Inventors: Benjamin Zorn, Ray Bittner, Darko Kirovski, Karthik Pattabiraman
  • Publication number: 20180174268
    Abstract: A system may include a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) and a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The system may further include a bus interface that is external to the FPGA, and that is configured to transfer data directly between the GPU and the FPGA without storing the data in a memory of a central processing unit (CPU) as an intermediary operation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 5, 2018
    Publication date: June 21, 2018
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Ray Bittner, Erik S. Ruf
  • Publication number: 20180157465
    Abstract: Apparatus and methods are disclosed for performing block floating-point (BFP) operations, including in implementations of neural networks. All or a portion of one or more matrices or vectors can share one or more common exponents. Techniques are disclosed for selecting the shared common exponents. In some examples of the disclosed technology, a method includes producing BFP representations of matrices or vectors, at least two elements of the respective matrices or vectors sharing a common exponent, performing a mathematical operation on two or more of the plurality of matrices or vectors, and producing an output matrix or vector. Based on the output matrix or vector, one or more updated common exponents are selected, and an updated matrix or vector is produced having some elements that share the updated common exponents.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 10, 2017
    Publication date: June 7, 2018
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Ray Bittner, Alessandro Forin
  • Patent number: 9978461
    Abstract: Embodiments are described that leverage variability of a chip. Different areas of a chip vary in terms of reliability under a same operating condition. The variability may be captured by measuring errors over different areas of the chip. A physical factor that affects or controls the likelihood of an error on the chip can be varied. For example, the voltage supplied to a chip may be provided at different levels. At each level of the physical factor, the chip is tested for errors within the regions. Some indication of the error statistics for the regions is stored and then used to adjust power used by the chip, to adjust reliability behavior of the chip, to allow applications to control how the chip is used, to compute a signature uniquely identifying the chip, etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2018
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Benjamin Zorn, Ray Bittner, Darko Kirovski, Karthik Pattabiraman
  • Patent number: 9928567
    Abstract: A system may include a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) and a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The system may further include a bus interface that is external to the FPGA, and that is configured to transfer data directly between the GPU and the FPGA without storing the data in a memory of a central processing unit (CPU) as an intermediary operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 4, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2018
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Ray Bittner, Erik S. Ruf
  • Publication number: 20170323689
    Abstract: Embodiments are described that leverage variability of a chip. Different areas of a chip vary in terms of reliability under a same operating condition. The variability may be captured by measuring errors over different areas of the chip. A physical factor that affects or controls the likelihood of an error on the chip can be varied. For example, the voltage supplied to a chip may be provided at different levels. At each level of the physical factor, the chip is tested for errors within the regions. Some indication of the error statistics for the regions is stored and then used to adjust power used by the chip, to adjust reliability behavior of the chip, to allow applications to control how the chip is used, to compute a signature uniquely identifying the chip, etc.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 17, 2017
    Publication date: November 9, 2017
    Inventors: Benjamin Zorn, Ray Bittner, Darko Kirovski, Karthik Pattabiraman
  • Patent number: 9666303
    Abstract: Embodiments are described that leverage variability of a chip. Different areas of a chip vary in terms of reliability under a same operating condition. The variability may be captured by measuring errors over different areas of the chip. A physical factor that affects or controls the likelihood of an error on the chip can be varied. For example, the voltage supplied to a chip may be provided at different levels. At each level of the physical factor, the chip is tested for errors within the regions. Some indication of the error statistics for the regions is stored and then used to adjust power used by the chip, to adjust reliability behavior of the chip, to allow applications to control how the chip is used, to compute a signature uniquely identifying the chip, etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 30, 2017
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Benjamin Zorn, Ray Bittner, Darko Kirovski, Karthik Pattabiraman
  • Publication number: 20160292813
    Abstract: A system may include a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) and a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The system may further include a bus interface that is external to the FPGA, and that is configured to transfer data directly between the GPU and the FPGA without storing the data in a memory of a central processing unit (CPU) as an intermediary operation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 4, 2016
    Publication date: October 6, 2016
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Ray Bittner, Erik S. Ruf
  • Patent number: 9304730
    Abstract: A system may include a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) and a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The system may further include a bus interface that is external to the FPGA, and that is configured to transfer data directly between the GPU and the FPGA without storing the data in a memory of a central processing unit (CPU) as an intermediary operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 23, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2016
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Ray Bittner, Erik S. Ruf
  • Publication number: 20150135028
    Abstract: Embodiments are described that leverage variability of a chip. Different areas of a chip vary in terms of reliability under a same operating condition. The variability may be captured by measuring errors over different areas of the chip. A physical factor that affects or controls the likelihood of an error on the chip can be varied. For example, the voltage supplied to a chip may be provided at different levels. At each level of the physical factor, the chip is tested for errors within the regions. Some indication of the error statistics for the regions is stored and then used to adjust power used by the chip, to adjust reliability behavior of the chip, to allow applications to control how the chip is used, to compute a signature uniquely identifying the chip, etc.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 23, 2015
    Publication date: May 14, 2015
    Inventors: Benjamin Zorn, Ray Bittner, Darko Kirovski, Karthik Pattabiraman
  • Patent number: 8977910
    Abstract: Embodiments are described that leverage variability of a chip. Different areas of a chip vary in terms of reliability under a same operating condition. The variability may be captured by measuring errors over different areas of the chip. A physical factor that affects or controls the likelihood of an error on the chip can be varied. For example, the voltage supplied to a chip may be provided at different levels. At each level of the physical factor, the chip is tested for errors within the regions. Some indication of the error statistics for the regions is stored and then used to adjust power used by the chip, to adjust reliability behavior of the chip, to allow applications to control how the chip is used, to compute a signature uniquely identifying the chip, etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2015
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC.
    Inventors: Benjamin Zorn, Ray Bittner, Darko Kirovski, Karthik Pattabiraman
  • Publication number: 20140320388
    Abstract: A set of population data that includes a plurality of individual population data entities is obtained. Each of the individual population data entities in the obtained set is streamed to an array of a plurality of evaluation functions. The evaluation functions are configured to evaluate each entity to determine an acceptability of the entity for a current state of a candidate centroid value associated with the evaluation function. Acceptance of input data entities is terminated after a first accepting one of the evaluation functions accepts an entity, based on the determined acceptability and on a predetermined priority ordering of acceptance. The first accepting one of the evaluation functions, in the priority ordering, incorporates population data associated with the accepted entity into an aggregator that is local to the first accepting evaluation function.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 25, 2013
    Publication date: October 30, 2014
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Alessandro Forin, Ken Eguro, Ray Bittner
  • Publication number: 20140055467
    Abstract: A system may include a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) and a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The system may further include a bus interface that is external to the FPGA, and that is configured to transfer data directly between the GPU and the FPGA without storing the data in a memory of a central processing unit (CPU) as an intermediary operation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 23, 2012
    Publication date: February 27, 2014
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Ray Bittner, Erik S. Ruf