Patents by Inventor Steven D. Hamm

Steven D. Hamm 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: 9449129
    Abstract: A system and method of accelerating sparse matrix operations in full accuracy simulation of a circuit includes determining repetitive blocks of the circuit, determining a set of values of a current block, determining whether the state of the current block is sufficiently close to the state of a stored block solution when the corresponding values are within a predetermined error range, and performing a reduced computation using the stored block solution to provide a solution for the current block when the states are sufficiently close to each other. The reduced computation includes retrieving previously stored solutions and performing substantially simplified matrix and vector operations while maintaining accuracy of the solution. Reduced precision versions of the values may be used to generate a hash index used to store the block solutions. Stored redundant device information may also be used to simplify device solutions in a similar manner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2016
    Assignee: Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.
    Inventors: Kiran Kumar Gullapalli, Steven D. Hamm
  • Patent number: 9135383
    Abstract: A mechanism for improving speed of table model-based simulation of complex circuits that include transistors and other devices that share similar properties is provided. Circuit simulation speed is improved by efficiently identifying transistors and other devices having substantially the same properties that share a same state at the time of interest in the simulation. Transistors and other devices are collected into groups having the same characteristics and topologies prior to simulation. Then during simulation, a determination is made as to whether a previously-evaluated transistor or device in the same group as a presently-being evaluated transistor or device has terminal input values that are the same, or nearly the same. If so, a cache lookup is performed to determine table model solution values for the previously-evaluated transistor or device, and those values are used to determine exact output values per the table model of the presently being evaluated transistor or device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2015
    Assignee: FREESCALE SEMICONDUCTOR, INC.
    Inventors: Kiran Gullapalli, Steven D. Hamm
  • Patent number: 8886508
    Abstract: A mechanism for improving speed of simulation of complex circuits that include transistors and other devices that share similar properties is provided. Circuit simulation speed is improved by efficiently identifying transistors and other devices having identical properties that share a same state at the time of interest in the simulation. Transistors and other devices are collected into groups having the same characteristics and topologies prior to simulation. Then during simulation, a determination is made as to whether a previously-evaluated transistor or device in the same group as a presently-being evaluated transistor or device has terminal input values that are the same, or nearly the same. If so, then output values of the previously-evaluated transistor or device are used in calculating the output values of the present transistor or device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 22, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 11, 2014
    Assignee: Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.
    Inventors: Kiran Kumar Gullapalli, Steven D. Hamm
  • Publication number: 20140324398
    Abstract: A system and method of accelerating sparse matrix operations in full accuracy simulation of a circuit includes determining repetitive blocks of the circuit, determining a set of values of a current block, determining whether the state of the current block is sufficiently close to the state of a stored block solution when the corresponding values are within a predetermined error range, and performing a reduced computation using the stored block solution to provide a solution for the current block when the states are sufficiently close to each other. The reduced computation includes retrieving previously stored solutions and performing substantially simplified matrix and vector operations while maintaining accuracy of the solution. Reduced precision versions of the values may be used to generate a hash index used to store the block solutions. Stored redundant device information may also be used to simplify device solutions in a similar manner.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 30, 2013
    Publication date: October 30, 2014
    Inventors: Kiran Kumar Gullapalli, Steven D. Hamm
  • Publication number: 20140142903
    Abstract: A mechanism for improving speed of table model-based simulation of complex circuits that include transistors and other devices that share similar properties is provided. Circuit simulation speed is improved by efficiently identifying transistors and other devices having substantially the same properties that share a same state at the time of interest in the simulation. Transistors and other devices are collected into groups having the same characteristics and topologies prior to simulation. Then during simulation, a determination is made as to whether a previously-evaluated transistor or device in the same group as a presently-being evaluated transistor or device has terminal input values that are the same, or nearly the same. If so, a cache lookup is performed to determine table model solution values for the previously-evaluated transistor or device, and those values are used to determine exact output values per the table model of the presently being evaluated transistor or device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 16, 2012
    Publication date: May 22, 2014
    Inventors: Kiran Gullapalli, Steven D. Hamm
  • Publication number: 20130054217
    Abstract: A mechanism for improving speed of simulation of complex circuits that include transistors and other devices that share similar properties is provided. Circuit simulation speed is improved by efficiently identifying transistors and other devices having identical properties that share a same state at the time of interest in the simulation. Transistors and other devices are collected into groups having the same characteristics and topologies prior to simulation. Then during simulation, a determination is made as to whether a previously-evaluated transistor or device in the same group as a presently-being evaluated transistor or device has terminal input values that are the same, or nearly the same. If so, then output values of the previously-evaluated transistor or device are used in calculating the output values of the present transistor or device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 22, 2011
    Publication date: February 28, 2013
    Inventors: Kiran Kumar Gullapalli, Steven D. Hamm
  • Patent number: 5799172
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for simulating the design of an integrated circuit uses a processor (200). The processor (200) executes a simulator (540) from memory (280) to exercise a model (544). The data points (15-27) of an output signal are stored in a history data file (542). The techniques used to generate each of the data points (15-27) are also stored in the history data in file (542). The history data are then used to generate a converted output signal that has a uniform time scale. If the converted output signal requires the generation of a desired data point, then the approximation technique used to generate the following data point stored in the history data (542) is used.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 1996
    Date of Patent: August 25, 1998
    Assignee: Motorola, Inc.
    Inventors: Kiran Kumar Gullapalli, Brian J. Mulvaney, Steven D. Hamm, Steven R. Beckerich