Patents by Inventor Richard E. Nier

Richard E. Nier 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: 5625836
    Abstract: A parallel array processor for massively parallel applications is formed with low power CMOS with DRAM processing while incorporating processing elements on a single chip. Eight processors on a single chip have their own associated processing element, significant memory, and I/O and are interconnected with a hypercube based, but modified, topology. These nodes are then interconnected, either by a hypercube, modified hypercube, or ring, or ring within ring network topology. Conventional microprocessor MMPs consume pins and time going to memory. The new architecture merges processor and memory with multiple PMEs (eight 16 bit processors with 32K and I/O) in DRAM and has no memory access delays and uses all the pins for networking. The chip can be a single node of a fine-grained parallel processor. Each chip will have eight 16 bit processors, each processor providing 5 MIPs performance. I/O has three internal ports and one external port shared by the plural processors on the chip.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 1995
    Date of Patent: April 29, 1997
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Thomas N. Barker, Clive A. Collins, Michael C. Dapp, James W. Dieffenderfer, Donald M. Lesmeister, Richard E. Nier, Eric E. Retter, Robert R. Richardson, Vincent J. Smoral
  • Patent number: 5617577
    Abstract: A fast I/O for a multi-PME computer system provides a way to break into a network coupling to alternate network couplings. The system coupling is called a zipper.Our I/O zipper concept can be used to implement the concept that the port into a node could be driven by the port out of a node or by data coming from the system bus. Conversely, data being put out of a node would be available to both the input to another node and to the system bus. Outputting data to both the system bus and another node is not done simultaneously but in different cycles. The zipper passes data into and out of a network of interconnected nodes is used in a system of interconnecting nodes in a mesh, rings of wrapped tori. such that there is no edge to the network, the zipper mechanism logically breaks the the rings along a dimension orthogonal to the rings such that an edge to the network is established. The coupling dynamically toggles the network between a network without an edge and a network with an edge.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 1995
    Date of Patent: April 1, 1997
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Thomas N. Barker, Clive A. Collins, Michael C. Dapp, James W. Dieffenderfer, Donald G. Grice, Billy J. Knowles, Donald M. Lesmeister, Richard E. Nier, Eric E. Retter, David B. Rolfe, Vincent J. Smoral
  • Patent number: 5590345
    Abstract: A computer system having a plurality of processors and memory including a plurality of scalable nodes having multiple like processor memory elements. Each of the processor memory elements has a plurality of communication paths for communication within a node to other like processor memory elements within the node. Each of the processor memory elements also has a communication path for communication external to the node to another like scalable node of the computer system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 22, 1992
    Date of Patent: December 31, 1996
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Thomas N. Barker, Clive A. Collins, Michael C. Dapp, James W. Dieffenderfer, Donald G. Grice, Peter M. Kogge, David C. Kuchinski, Billy J. Knowles, Donald M. Lesmeister, Richard E. Miles, Richard E. Nier, Eric E. Retter, Robert R. Richardson, David B. Rolfe, Nicholas J. Schoonover, Vincent J. Smoral, James R. Stupp, Paul A. Wilkinson