Patents by Inventor Sankaran M. Menon

Sankaran M. Menon 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: 10054636
    Abstract: Techniques and mechanisms to exchange test, debug or trace (TDT) information via a general purpose input/output (I/O) interface. In an embodiment, an I/O interface of a device is coupled to an external TDT unit, wherein the I/O interface is compatible with an interconnect standard that supports communication of data other than any test information, debug information or trace information. One or more circuit components reside on the device or are otherwise coupled to the external TDT unit via the I/O interface. Information exchanged via the I/O interface is generated by, or results in, the performance of one or more TDT operations to evaluate the one or more circuit components. In another embodiment, the glue logic of the device interfaces the I/O interface with a test access point that is coupled between the one or more circuit components and the I/O interface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2018
    Assignee: Intel IP Corporation
    Inventors: Rolf H. Kuehnis, Sankaran M. Menon, Patrik Eder
  • Patent number: 9989592
    Abstract: Existing multi-wire debugging protocols, such as 4-wire JTAG, 2-wire cJTAG, or ARM SWD, are run through a serial wireless link by providing the debugger and the target device with hardware interfaces that include UARTs and conversion bridges. The debugger interface serializes outgoing control signals and de-serializes returning data. The target interface de-serializes incoming control signals and serializes outgoing data. The actions of the interfaces are transparent to the inner workings of the devices, allowing re-use of existing debugging software. Compression, signal combining, and other optional enhancements increase debugging speed and flexibility while wirelessly accessing target devices that may be too small, too difficult to reach, or too seal-dependent for a wired connection.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2018
    Assignee: Intel IP Corporation
    Inventors: Sankaran M. Menon, Bradley H. Smith, Jinshi Huang, Rolf H. Kuehnis
  • Publication number: 20180128878
    Abstract: Described is an apparatus which comprises: a first voltage regulator (VR) having a reference input node; and a first multiplexer to provide a reference voltage to the reference input node and operable to select one of at least two different reference voltages as the reference voltage.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 9, 2017
    Publication date: May 10, 2018
    Inventors: SANKARAN M. MENON, VASUDEV BIBIKAR, SAHAJANANDA REDDY P, SUNGHYUN KOH, NAVEENDRAN BALASINGAM
  • Publication number: 20180003764
    Abstract: The disclosed systems, devices, and methods may provide for wireless testing of devices and, in particular, wireless testing of semiconductor devices comprising integrated circuits, memory, and logic circuitry that can be present on a wafer. The semiconductor devices can be tested for functional defects by applying one or more test patterns to the semiconductor devices. Further, for devices under test that do not have built-in wireless connectivity (for example, those that do not have a built-in Bluetooth low-energy engine), the disclosure describes systems and methods that the devices under test can use for external wireless connectivity (e.g., an external board having Bluetooth low-energy) on the low-bandwidth interface. In one example embodiment, for high-bandwidth scan testing, wireless connectivity modules (such as those implementing WiFi or WiGig) are described, which can be used to meet the bandwidth requirements of the one or more tests.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 1, 2016
    Publication date: January 4, 2018
    Inventors: Sankaran M. Menon, Rehan M. Sheikh, Rolf H. Kuehnis, John Michael Peterson, Asifur Rahman, Abram M. Detofsky, Mohsen Fazlian
  • Patent number: 9784791
    Abstract: Described is an apparatus which comprises: a first voltage regulator (VR) having a reference input node; and a first multiplexer to provide a reference voltage to the reference input node and operable to select one of at least two different reference voltages as the reference voltage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 18, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2017
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Sankaran M. Menon, Vasudev Bibikar, P. Reddy Sahajananda, Sunghyun Koh, Naveendran Balasingam
  • Publication number: 20170286254
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for collecting debug and crash information are described. In one embodiment, a system comprises one or more compute engines an external interface; a non-volatile memory coupled to the external interface and operable to store captured information, wherein the captured information comprises one or both of debug information and crash information; a first trace aggregator coupled to the non-volatile memory and the one or more compute engines to capture the one or both of debug information and crash information from at least one of the one or more compute engines in response to a crash of the system; and a controller, coupled to the non-volatile memory and the first trace aggregator, to cause captured information to be sent from the first trace aggregator to the non-volatile memory and to subsequently control transfer of the captured information stored in the non-volatile memory to the external interface.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 30, 2016
    Publication date: October 5, 2017
    Inventors: Sankaran M. Menon, Rolf H. Kuehnis, William H. Penner, Pronay Dutta
  • Publication number: 20170176523
    Abstract: Existing multi-wire debugging protocols, such as 4-wire JTAG, 2-wire cJTAG, or ARM SWD, are run through a serial wireless link by providing the debugger and the target device with hardware interfaces that include UARTs and conversion bridges. The debugger interface serializes outgoing control signals and de-serializes returning data. The target interface de-serializes incoming control signals and serializes outgoing data. The actions of the interfaces are transparent to the inner workings of the devices, allowing re-use of existing debugging software. Compression, signal combining, and other optional enhancements increase debugging speed and flexibility while wirelessly accessing target devices that may be too small, too difficult to reach, or too seal-dependent for a wired connection.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 18, 2015
    Publication date: June 22, 2017
    Inventors: Sankaran M. Menon, Bradley H. Smith, Jinshi Huang, Rolf H. Kuehnis
  • Publication number: 20170115344
    Abstract: Techniques and mechanisms to exchange test, debug or trace (TDT) information via a general purpose input/output (I/O) interface. In an embodiment, an I/O interface of a device is coupled to an external TDT unit, wherein the I/O interface is compatible with an interconnect standard that supports communication of data other than any test information, debug information or trace information. One or more circuit components reside on the device or are otherwise coupled to the external TDT unit via the I/O interface. Information exchanged via the I/O interface is generated by, or results in, the performance of one or more TDT operations to evaluate the one or more circuit components. In another embodiment, the glue logic of the device interfaces the I/O interface with a test access point that is coupled between the one or more circuit components and the I/O interface.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 30, 2016
    Publication date: April 27, 2017
    Inventors: Rolf H. KUEHNIS, Sankaran M. MENON, Patrik EDER
  • Patent number: 9632895
    Abstract: A system and method for a common unified debug architecture for integrated circuits and System on Chips (SoCs) are provided. A system consistent with the present disclosure may comprise of an integrated circuit or SoC which includes a display port, plurality of logic blocks, and debug logic. The debug logic may receive debug data from one or more of the plurality of logic blocks in response to the integrated circuit or SoC operating in a debug mode. In addition, control logic coupled to the debug logic. The control logic provides display data to the display port in response to the integrated circuit operating in an operational mode. The control logic further directs high-speed debug data to the display port in response to the integrated circuit or SoC operating in the debug mode. The high-speed debug data is to be based on the debug data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2017
    Assignee: INTEL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Sankaran M Menon, Rajendra S Yavatkar, Eyal Dolev, Sridhar Valluru, Ramana Rachakonda
  • Patent number: 9568547
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a bandwidth management controller is coupled to a debug interconnect to dynamically allocate buffer space of a plurality of data buffers to hardware trace information, software trace information, and firmware trace information. The bandwidth management controller further includes a control logic to dynamically control at least one of a voltage and a frequency of the debug interconnect based at least in part on a debug activity level or a functional activity level. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2017
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Sankaran M. Menon, Babu TRP, Rolf Kuehnis
  • Patent number: 9535117
    Abstract: Techniques of debugging a computing system are described herein. The techniques may include an apparatus having an all-in-one port. The all-in-one port may include a configuration channel and a sideband channel. The sideband channel is configured to default to a debug mode when the configuration channel is not communicatively coupled to an external device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2017
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Sankaran M. Menon, Rolf Kuehnis
  • Publication number: 20160285434
    Abstract: A method and apparatus (e.g., semiconductor device) for setting voltages (e.g., guardbands) using “in situ,” or on-die, silicon measurements are described. In one embodiment the semiconductor device comprises: a process monitor to measure silicon parameters of the semiconductor device; and a controller coupled to the process monitor to set a voltage for use on at least a portion of the semiconductor device based on silicon process monitor measurements.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 24, 2015
    Publication date: September 29, 2016
    Inventors: Sankaran M. Menon, Vasudev Bibikar
  • Publication number: 20160274187
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a bandwidth management controller is coupled to a debug interconnect to dynamically allocate buffer space of a plurality of data buffers to hardware trace information, software trace information, and firmware trace information. The bandwidth management controller further includes a control logic to dynamically control at least one of a voltage and a frequency of the debug interconnect based at least in part on a debug activity level or a functional activity level. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 17, 2015
    Publication date: September 22, 2016
    Inventors: SANKARAN M. MENON, BABU TRP, ROLF KUEHNIS
  • Publication number: 20160259005
    Abstract: Techniques of debugging a computing system are described herein. The techniques may include an apparatus having an all-in-one port. The all-in-one port may include a configuration channel and a sideband channel. The sideband channel is configured to default to a debug mode when the configuration channel is not communicatively coupled to an external device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 26, 2015
    Publication date: September 8, 2016
    Applicant: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Sankaran M. Menon, Rolf Kuehnis
  • Patent number: 9201448
    Abstract: Observability of internal system-on-chip signals is a difficult problem and it is particularly difficult to observe and debug transactions with different clock domains. However, one embodiment provides observability of internal signals from multiple internal blocks having varying clock domains such as synchronous (common clock) and asynchronous (non common clock) domains. An embodiment provides simultaneous observability of debug data from both synchronous and asynchronous clock domains. An embodiment may also allow sending debug data from both synchronous and asynchronous domains from the SoC. One embodiment outputs internal signals on output pins of the SoC, thereby allowing transactions from one clock domain to be tracked to another clock domain and allowing for the determination of the relationship between the data of differing clock domains. Other embodiments are described herein.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 1, 2015
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Sankaran M. Menon, Binta M. Patel, Bo Jiang, Nancy G. Woodbridge
  • Patent number: 9043649
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for output of high-bandwidth debug data/traces in electronic devices using embedded high-speed debug port(s). Debug data is received from multiple blocks and buffered in a buffer. The buffer's output is operatively coupled to one or more high-speed serial I/O interfaces via muxing logic during debug test operations. The buffered data is encoded as serialized data and sent over the one or more high-speed serial I/O interfaces to a logic device that receives serialized data and de-serializes it to generate parallel debug data that is provided to a debugger. The buffer may be configured as a bandwidth-adapting buffer that facilitates transfer of debug data that is received at a variable combined data rate outbound via the one or more high-speed serial I/O interfaces at a data rate corresponding to the bandwidth of the serial I/O interfaces.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2015
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Sankaran M. Menon, Sridhar K. Valluru, Ramana Rachakonda
  • Patent number: 8924786
    Abstract: Embodiments are generally directed no-touch stress testing of memory input/output (I/O) interfaces. An embodiment of a memory device includes a system element to be coupled with a dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), the system element including a memory interface for connection with the DRAM, the interface including a driver and a receiver, a memory controller for control of the DRAM, and a timing stress testing logic for testing of the I/O interface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 30, 2014
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Sankaran M. Menon, Robert R. Roeder
  • Patent number: 8904253
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for testing Input/Output (I/O) boundary scan chains for Systems on a Chip (SoCs) having I/Os that are powered off by default. Some methods and apparatus include implementation of boundary scan chain bypass routing schemes that selectively route a boundary scan chain path around I/O interfaces and/or ports that are powered off by default. Other techniques include selectively power-on I/Os that are powered off by default in a manner that is independent of SoC facilities for controlling the power state of the I/Os during SoC runtime operations. Various schemes facilitate boundary scan testing in accordance with IEEE Std.-1149.1 methodology.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 2, 2014
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Sankaran M. Menon, Robert R. Roeder, Liwei E. Ju
  • Publication number: 20140006836
    Abstract: Observability of internal system-on-chip signals is a difficult problem and it is particularly difficult to observe and debug transactions with different clock domains. However, one embodiment provides observability of internal signals from multiple internal blocks having varying clock domains such as synchronous (common clock) and asynchronous (non common clock) domains. An embodiment provides simultaneous observability of debug data from both synchronous and asynchronous clock domains. An embodiment may also allow sending debug data from both synchronous and asynchronous domains from the SoC. One embodiment outputs internal signals on output pins of the SoC, thereby allowing transactions from one clock domain to be tracked to another clock domain and allowing for the determination of the relationship between the data of differing clock domains. Other embodiments are described herein.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 28, 2012
    Publication date: January 2, 2014
    Inventors: Sankaran M. Menon, Binta M. Patel, Bo Jiang, Nancy G. Woodbridge
  • Publication number: 20140006864
    Abstract: Embodiments are generally directed no-touch stress testing of memory input/output (I/O) interfaces. An embodiment of a memory device includes a system element to be coupled with a dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), the system element including a memory interface for connection with the DRAM, the interface including a driver and a receiver, a memory controller for control of the DRAM, and a timing stress testing logic for testing of the I/O interface.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 28, 2012
    Publication date: January 2, 2014
    Applicant: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Sankaran M. Menon, Robert R. Roeder