Patents by Inventor Stephen B. Powers

Stephen B. Powers 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: 7424632
    Abstract: The present invention relates to systems and methods that manage a state machine's wake state to facilitate power management. The systems and methods comprise a state manager that can be employed to receive signals transmitted to a state machine that has transitioned to a lower power state. Thus, when a signal is transmitted to the state machine, the state manager can initially receive the signal rather the state machine. The state manager can interpret the signal and determine whether a low power coprocessor can respond to the signal. If the low power coprocessor can respond, then the coprocessor responds while the state machines remains in the lower power state. The system and methods can be concurrently employed by a plurality of state machines residing on similar and/or disparate networks, buses, backplanes, etc. The foregoing facilitates state machine power consumption reduction while maintaining timely responses.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2004
    Date of Patent: September 9, 2008
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Stephen B. Powers, Walt G. Jones
  • Patent number: 7284071
    Abstract: The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program product for waking a link layer based on data included in a network packet. A sending computer system and a receiving computer system are connected to a common network, such as, for example, an IEEE 1394 network. A physical layer at the receiving computer system receives a network packet from the sending computer system. The physical layer parses a plurality of bytes of packet data contained in the received network packet. The receiving computer system compares at least a portion of the packet data to rule data in a physical layer rule register. Based on the results of the comparison, it is determined if the physical layer is to assert a link on signal that, when received at a corresponding link layer, wakes the corresponding link layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 28, 2003
    Date of Patent: October 16, 2007
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Walt G. Jones, Stephen B. Powers
  • Patent number: 5748185
    Abstract: A touchpad (50) having multiple regions that may be linked to various commands or functions within a graphical user interface (GUI). Preferably, a cursor control region (54), a scroll control region (56), and a pan control region (58) are defined on the touchpad. Movement of a contact point in the cursor control region causes movement of a cursor in the GUI. Movement of a contact point in the scroll control region or the pan control region causes scrolling or panning, respectively, of the workspace in the GUI. The multiple regions may be mapped onto a single touchpad member (80) or each region identified with a separate touchpad member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 3, 1996
    Date of Patent: May 5, 1998
    Assignee: Stratos Product Development Group
    Inventors: Allan H. Stephan, Brent N. LaPorte, Stephen B. Powers, Mark McNeely