Abstract: A method and apparatus for adjusting the performance of a memory system is provided. A memory system comprises a master device and a slave device. A memory channel couples the master device to the slave device such that the slave device receives the system operating information from the master device via the memory channel. The slave device further includes means for tuning circuitry within the slave device such that the performance of the memory system is improved.

Abstract: A memory device has interface circuitry and a memory core which make up the stages of a pipeline, each stage being a step in a universal sequence associated with the memory core. The memory device has a plurality of operation units such as precharge, sense, read and write, which handle the primitive operations of the memory core to which the operation units are coupled. The memory device further includes a plurality of transport units configured to obtain information from external connections specifying an operation for one of the operation units and to transfer data between the memory core and the external connections. The transport units operate concurrently with the operation units as added stages to the pipeline, thereby creating a memory device which operates at high throughput and with low service times under the memory reference stream of common applications.

Abstract: An integrated circuit memory device includes a first set of pins and a memory core. The first set of pins receive, using a clock signal, a write command and a read command. Control information is issued internally in response to the write command after a predetermined delay time transpires following receipt of the write command, the control information initiating the write operation in the memory device. A second set of pins output the read data after a first delay time transpires from when the read command is received. Each pin of the second set of pins outputs two bits of read data during a clock cycle of the clock signal. The second set of pins also receive write data after a second delay time has transpired from when the write command is received. The second delay time is based on the first delay time.

Abstract: A memory system has first, second and third interconnects and an integrated circuit memory device coupled to the interconnects. The second interconnect conveys a write command and a read command. The third interconnect conveys write data and read data. The integrated circuit memory device includes a pin coupled to the first interconnect to receive a clock signal. The memory device also includes a first plurality of pins coupled to the second interconnect to receive the write command and read command, and a second plurality of pins coupled to the third interconnect to receive write data and to assert read data. Control information is applied to initiate the write operation after a first predetermined delay time transpires from when the write command is received. During a clock cycle of the clock signal, two bits of read data are conveyed by each pin of the second plurality of pins.

Abstract: A memory device with multiple clock domains. Separate clocks to different portions of the control circuitry create different clock domains. The different domains are sequentially turned on as needed to limit the power consumed. The turn on time of the domains is overlapped with the latency for the memory access to make the power control transparent to the user accessing the memory core. The memory device can dynamically switch between a fast and a slow clock depending upon the needed data bandwidth. The data bandwidth across the memory interface can be monitored by the memory controller, and when it drops below a certain threshold, a slower clock can be used. The clock speed can be dynamically increased as the bandwidth demand increases.

Abstract: A method and circuit for achieving minimum latency data transfer between two mesochronous (same frequency, different phase) clock domains is disclosed. This circuit supports arbitrary phase relationships between two clock domains and is tolerant of temperature and voltage shifts after initialization while maintaining the same output data latency. In one embodiment, this circuit is used on a bus-system to re-time data from receive-domain, clocks to transmit-domain clocks. In such a system the phase relationships between these two clocks is set by the device bus location and thus is not precisely known. By supporting arbitrary phase resynchronization, this disclosure allows for theoretically infinite bus-length and thus no limitation on device count, as well as arbitrary placement of devices along the bus. This ultimately allows support of multiple latency-domains for very long buses.

Abstract: An integrated circuit memory device having delayed write command processing includes a first set of pins coupled to a memory core, the first set of pins to receive a row address followed by a column address. A second set of pins, coupled to memory core, are used to receive a sense command followed by a write command. The sense command specifies the sensing of a row of memory cells identified by the row address, and the write command specifies that the memory device receive write data and store the write data at a column location identified by the column address. The write command is posted internally to the memory device after a first delay has transpired from when the write command is received at the second set of pins.

Abstract: A bus system for use with addressable memory has a global bus of bidirectional signal lines. The global bus has a first end and a second end. A master device transmits data to and receives data from the global bus at the first end. A global bus terminator is coupled to the global bus at the second end. One or more slave devices, including a last slave device at a furthest distance from the master device, each includes an active terminator coupled to at least some of the bidirectional signal lines of the global bus. The active terminator of only the last slave device is enabled.

Abstract: A memory device includes an interconnect with mask pins and a memory core for storing data. A memory interface circuit is connected between the interconnect and the memory core. The memory interface circuit selectively processes write mask data from the mask pins or precharge instruction signals from the mask pins.

Abstract: An integrated circuit device is described. The integrated circuit device includes a transmitter circuit having an output driver to output data, and a register to store a value representative of an equalization co-efficient setting of the output driver. The value may be determined based on information stored in a supplemental memory device.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for adjusting the performance of a memory system is provided. A memory control device comprises a master device including a frequency detector, a memory channel, and a memory device coupled to the master device via the memory channel. The memory device includes a decoder designed to receive a control signal from the master device. A clock recovery and alignment circuit receives the control signal from the decoder and adjusts the operating frequency of the memory device in response to the control signal.

Abstract: A dynamic random access memory device includes banks of dynamic memory cells. The device performs a refresh operation in response to receiving a self refresh command, by refreshing rows of the memory cells located in each of the banks. Further, a refresh frequency for the refresh operation is selected such that the refresh frequency is minimized to conserve power consumed by the memory device while being sufficient to refresh the rows of the memory cells.

Abstract: A chip-to-chip communication system and interface technique. A master and at least two devices are interconnected with a signal line of a high speed bus. A capacitive coupling element, for example a diode, is employed to capacitively couple the interface of the device to the signal line. By employing the capacitive coupling element, along with a suitable signaling technique which supports capacitive information transfer, high speed rates of information transfer between the master and device over the signal line are achieved.

Abstract: In an integrated circuit memory device, a transmitter circuit includes an output driver that outputs data synchronously with respect to an external clock. A register stores a value representative of a drive strength setting of the output driver. The value is determined based on information stored in a supplemental memory device.

Abstract: Bus communications are optimized by adjusting signal characteristics in accordance with one or more topography dependent parameters. In a bus transmitter, a transmit signal characteristic is adjusted in accordance with a topography dependent parameter. A port in the bus transmitter receives the topography dependent parameter for later use by the parameter adjustment circuitry. The parameter adjustment circuitry adjusts a parameter control signal in accordance with the topography dependent parameter, which is coupled to the output driver. Prior to driving an output signal onto a bus, the output driver adjusts the transmit signal characteristic in accordance with the parameter control signal. Similarly, in a bus receiver, a receive signal characteristic is adjusted in response to a topography dependent parameter.

Abstract: A high-speed memory system is disclosed in which a single command effects control over either a single memory device or a plurality of memory devices depending on a present mode of operation. Such control may effect data transfer between the one or more memory devices and a memory controller, as well as operating state transitions or power mode transitions for the memory devices. Similarly, various configurations of relatively low bandwidth memory devices respond as a selectively controllable group to transmit or receive high bandwidth data.

Abstract: An integrated circuit that communicates with a plurality of other integrated circuit devices includes a transmitter circuit to transmit data to an external signal line and a first register to store a first value representative of a transmit phase adjustment that is used to adjust when the transmit data is transmitted. The first value is determined based on information specifying a configuration of the plurality of other integrated circuit devices.

Abstract: Bus communications are optimized by adjusting signal characteristics in accordance with one or more topography dependent parameters. In a bus transmitter, a transmit signal characteristic is adjusted in accordance with a topography dependent parameter. A port in the bus transmitter receives the topography dependent parameter for later use by the parameter adjustment circuitry. The parameter adjustment circuitry adjusts a parameter control signal in accordance with the topography dependent parameter, which is coupled to the output driver. Prior to driving an output signal onto a bus, the output driver adjusts the transmit signal characteristic in accordance with the parameter control signal. Similarly, in a bus receiver, a receive signal characteristic is adjusted in response to a topography dependent parameter.

Abstract: A memory system includes a memory module having a plurality of memory devices and a supplemental memory device that stores information pertaining to the plurality of memory devices. The memory module also includes an integrated circuit device having controller circuitry that communicates with the plurality memory of devices, the integrated circuit device including a receiver circuit to sample receive data from an external signal line at a sample time, and a first register to store a first value representative of a sampling time adjustment that is applied to the sample time. The first value is determined based on the information pertaining to the plurality of memory devices.

Abstract: A high speed bus system in which at least one master device, such as a processor and at least one DRAM slave device are coupled to the bus. An innovative packet format and device interface which utilizes a plurality of time and space saving features in order to decrease the die size of the device receiver and decrease the overall latency on the bus is provided. In the preferred embodiment the request packet is transmitted on ten multiplexed transmission lines, identified as BusCtl and BusData [8:0]. The packet is transmitted over six sequential bus cycles, wherein during each bus cycle, a different portion of the packet is transmitted. The lower order address bits are moved ahead of the higher order address bits of the memory request. This enables the receiving device to process the memory request faster as the locality of the memory reference with respect to previous references can be immediately determined and page mode accesses on the DRAM can be initiated as quickly as possible.