Microprocessor Or Multichip Or Multimodule Processor Having Sequential Program Control Patents (Class 712/32)
  • Patent number: 9141361
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus and systems for virtualization of a native instruction set are disclosed. Embodiments include a processor core executing the native instructions and a second core, or alternatively only the second processor core consuming less power while executing a second instruction set that excludes portions of the native instruction set. The second core's decoder detects invalid opcodes of the second instruction set. A microcode layer disassembler determines if opcodes should be translated. A translation runtime environment identifies an executable region containing an invalid opcode, other invalid opcodes and interjacent valid opcodes of the second instruction set. An analysis unit determines an initial machine state prior to execution of the invalid opcode. A partial translation of the executable region that includes encapsulations of the translations of invalid opcodes and state recoveries of the machine states is generated and saved to a translation cache memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 22, 2015
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Gadi Haber, Konstantin Kostya Levit-Gurevich, Esfir Natanzon, Boris Ginzburg, Aya Elhanan, Moshe Maury Bach, Igor Breger
  • Patent number: 9105244
    Abstract: A panel control apparatus and an operating method thereof are provided, and which includes a scalar and a timing controller. The scalar transmits a present display data for composing a display frame, and determines whether to generate a refresh request signal according to a state of the display frame. The timing controller includes a memory, an over driving unit and a panel self refresh unit. When the refresh request signal is not generated, the over driving unit converts the present display data into an over driving display data according to a previous compression data from the memory. When the refresh request signal is generated, the panel self refresh unit compresses the present display data into a refresh display data, and stores the refresh display data into the memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 16, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 11, 2015
    Assignee: HIMAX TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED
    Inventors: Tung-Ying Wu, Chun-Te Ho
  • Patent number: 9098244
    Abstract: A non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions stored thereon. When executed by at least one processor, the instructions may be configured to cause a computer system to at least monitor for a post-tactile keyboard input within a post-tactile input threshold time after receiving a tactile input device input, ignore the tactile input device input if the post-tactile keyboard input is received within the post-tactile input threshold time after receiving the tactile input device input, and recognize the tactile input device input if the post-tactile keyboard input is not received within the post-tactile input threshold time after receiving the tactile input device input.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2015
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventor: James Roskind
  • Patent number: 9087381
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for extracting surface representation from images and video data for segmenting image plane according to the surface connectivity, and identifying areas of images taken by a moving camera according to the object surfaces wherefrom the areas of images are taken, are disclosed. The invention discloses a method and apparatus comprising a plurality of processing modules for extracting from images in a video sequence the occluding contours delineating images into regions in accordance with the spatial connectivity of the correspondent visible surfaces, and diffeomorphism relations between areas of images taken from different perspective centers for identifying image areas of different frames as of the surface of same object, and specifying the fold contours of the surfaces that owns the contour, and thus producing the surface representations from video images taken from persistent objects by a moving camera.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 13, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 21, 2015
    Inventors: Thomas Tsao, Xuemei Cheng
  • Patent number: 9083725
    Abstract: The embodiments herein develop a system for providing hierarchical cache for big data processing. The system comprises a caching layer, a plurality of actors in communication with the caching layer, a machine hosting the plurality of actors, a plurality of replication channels in communication with the plurality of actors, a predefined ring structure. The caching layer is a chain of memory and storage capacity elements, configured to store a data from the input stream. The plurality of actors is configured to replicate the input data stream and forward the replicated data to the caching layer. The replication channels are configured to forward the replicated data from a particular actor to another actor. The predefined ring structure maps the input data to the replica actors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 14, 2015
    Inventors: Fred Korangy, Hamed Ghasemzadeh, Mohsen Arjmandi, Reza Azmi
  • Patent number: 9053812
    Abstract: Embodiments of the invention describe a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) device that may abort a self-refresh mode to improve the exit time from a DRAM low power state of self-refresh. During execution of a self-refresh mode, the DRAM device may receive a signal (e.g., a device enable signal) from a memory controller operatively coupled to the DRAM device. The DRAM device may abort the self-refresh mode in response to receiving the signal from the memory controller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 9, 2015
    Assignee: INTEL CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kuljit S. Bains
  • Patent number: 9026239
    Abstract: A method of extending advanced process control (APC) models includes constructing an APC model table including APC model parameters of a plurality of products and a plurality of work stations. The APC model table includes empty cells and cells filled with existing APC model parameters. Average APC model parameters of the existing APC model parameters are calculated, and filled into the empty cells as initial values. An iterative calculation is performed to update the empty cells with updated values.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2015
    Assignee: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Po-Feng Tsai, Yen-Di Tsen, Jo Fei Wang, Jong-I Mou
  • Patent number: 9015504
    Abstract: A multi-threaded microprocessor for processing instructions in threads, including, in one embodiment, (1) at least one processor pipeline for the instructions; (2) a storage for a thread power management configuration; and (3) a power control circuit coupled to said at least one processor pipeline and responsive to said storage for thread power management configuration to control power used by different parts of the at least one processor pipeline depending on the threads, wherein said power control circuit is operable to establish different power voltages in different parts of the at least one processor pipeline depending on the threads.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 6, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2015
    Assignee: Texas Instruments Incorporated
    Inventor: Thang Tran
  • Patent number: 8996278
    Abstract: In a control device for an internal combustion engine, which includes control unit that has a processor with a plurality of cores and that computes various tasks associated with operation of the internal combustion engine, the control unit includes a selecting unit, that selects at least one core used in the computation from among the plurality of cores, a computing unit that distributes the tasks to the at least one core selected by the selecting unit to perform computation, and an acquisition unit that acquires an engine, rotational speed of the internal combustion engine, and, when the engine rotational speed acquired by the acquisition unit is higher than or equal to a predetermined threshold, the selecting unit increases the number of the cores selected as compared with when the acquired engine rotational speed is lower than the predetermined threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 18, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2015
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hayato Nakada, Akira Ohata, Keisuke Osakabe
  • Patent number: 8996895
    Abstract: A processor may include power management techniques to, dynamically, chose an optimal C-state for the processing core. The measurement of real workloads on the OSes exhibit two important observations (1) the bursts of high interrupt rate are interspersed between the low interrupt rate periods and long periods of high activity levels; and (2) the interrupt rate may, suddenly, fall below an interrupt rate (of 1 milli-second, for example) that is typical of the current operating systems (OS). Instead of determining the C-state based on the stale data stored in the counters, the power control logic may determine an optimal C-state by overriding the C-state determined by the OS or any other power monitoring logic. The power control logic may, dynamically, determine an optimal C-state based on the CPU idle residency times and variable rate wakeup events to match the expected wakeup event rate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2015
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Alon Naveh, Eliezer Weissmann, Ofer Nathan, Nadav Shulman
  • Patent number: 8972995
    Abstract: A method, apparatus, and system in which an integrated circuit comprises an initiator Intellectual Property (IP) core, a target IP core, an interconnect, and a tag and thread logic. The target IP core may include a memory coupled to the initiator IP core. Additionally, the interconnect can allow the integrated circuit to communicate transactions between one or more initiator Intellectual Property (IP) cores and one or more target IP cores coupled to the interconnect. A tag and thread logic can be configured to concurrently perform per-thread and per-tag memory access scheduling within a thread and across multiple threads such that the tag and thread logic manages tags and threads to allow for per-tag and per-thread scheduling of memory accesses requests from the initiator IP core out of order from an initial issue order of the memory accesses requests from the initiator IP core.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2015
    Assignee: Sonics, Inc.
    Inventors: Krishnan Srinivasan, Ruben Khazhakyan, Harutyan Aslanyan, Drew E. Wingard, Chien-Chun Chou
  • Patent number: 8930635
    Abstract: Processing within a multiprocessor computer system is facilitated by: setting, in association with invalidate page table entry processing, a storage key at a matching location in central storage of a multiprocessor computer system to a predefined value; and subsequently executing a request to update the storage key to a new storage key, the subsequently executing including determining whether the predefined value is an allowed stale value, and if so, replacing in central storage the storage key of predefined value with the new storage key without requiring purging or updating of the storage key in any local processor cache of the multiprocessor computer system, thus minimizing interprocessor communication pursuant to processing of the request to update the storage key to the new storage key.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 6, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Gary A. Woffinden
  • Patent number: 8929376
    Abstract: An island-based network flow processor (IB-NFP) integrated circuit includes islands organized in rows. A configurable mesh event bus extends through the islands and is configured to form a local event ring. The configurable mesh event bus is configured with configuration information received via a configurable mesh control bus. The local event ring involves event ring circuits and event ring segments. In one example, a packet is received onto a first island. If an amount of a processing resource (for example, memory buffer space) available to the first island is below a threshold, then an event packet is communicated from the first island to a second island via the local event ring. In response, the second island causes a third island to communicate via a command/push/pull data bus with the first island, thereby increasing the amount of the processing resource available to the first island for handing incoming packets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 17, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 6, 2015
    Assignee: Netronome Systems, Incorporated
    Inventors: Gavin J. Stark, Steven W. Zagorianakos, Ron L. Swartzentruber, Richard P. Bouley
  • Patent number: 8930676
    Abstract: A core configuration discovery method and corresponding microprocessor are provided that does not rely on off-core logic or queries by system BIOS. Reset microcode is provided in the microprocessor's cores. Upon reset, the microcode queries and/or receives from other cores configuration-revealing information and collects the configuration-revealing information to determine a composite core configuration for the microprocessor. The composite core configuration may reveal the number of enabled cores, identify the enabled cores, reveal a hierarchical coordination system of the multi-core processor, such as a nodal map of the cores for certain inter-core communication processes or restricted activities, identify various domains and domain masters within such a system, and/or identify resources, such as voltage sources, clock sources, and caches, shared by various domains of the microprocessor. The composite core configuration may be used for power state management, reconfiguration, and other purposes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 6, 2015
    Assignee: Via Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: G. Glenn Henry, Darius D. Gaskins
  • Publication number: 20150006850
    Abstract: Provided is a processor with a heterogeneous clustered architecture. The processor comprises a first cluster comprising a first functional unit configured to process a first type of instruction, and a register whose I/O ports are connected to I/O ports of the functional unit; and a second cluster comprising a second functional unit configured to process the first type of instruction and second type of instruction, and a second register whose I/O ports are connected to I/O ports of the second functional unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 25, 2014
    Publication date: January 1, 2015
    Applicant: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd
    Inventors: Ki-Seok KWON, Min-Wook AHN, Dong-Kwan SUH, Suk-Jin KIM
  • Patent number: 8886917
    Abstract: A multi-core processor includes at least one first core and at least one second core. The first core is optimized to run applications, and the second core is optimized to meet the computing demands of operating-system-like code. The first core and the second core execute the same instruction set.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 25, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 11, 2014
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Nathan L. Binkert, Jeffrey C. Mogul, Jayaram Mudlgonda, Parthasarathy Ranganathan
  • Patent number: 8880753
    Abstract: Some embodiments relate to a vehicle electronic controller having a microcomputer and a port expansion element, with reduced power consumption and radio noise. An MCU (microcomputer) performs determination processing that determines whether an output condition is established that is based on a signal that is input via a signal input port of the MCU. If the output condition is established, the MCU transmits a signal output instruction to a port expansion element via a communication port, and if not, the instruction is not transmitted. The port expansion element outputs a signal via a signal output port in response to an instruction from the MCU. The port expansion element automatically switches, depending on whether communication via the MCU is being suspended, between operation in a waiting mode in which the internal oscillation circuit is suspended, and operation in a normal mode in which the internal oscillation circuit is operated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 4, 2014
    Assignee: Sumitomo Wiring Systems, Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroaki Takahashi, Takaki Kishida, Tomohide Hayashi, Tomoya Hayashi
  • Patent number: 8880485
    Abstract: According to some embodiments, a data source is accessed from which data will be retrieved via a plurality of processing threads. The data source may have, for example, a plurality of records with each record being associated with a plurality of identifiers. Each of the plurality of identifiers may be dynamically evaluated as a potential range identifier, and the evaluation may be based at least in part on a number of distinct values present within each identifier. One of the potential range identifiers may be selected as a selected range identifier, and the plurality of records may be divided into ranges defined using the selected range identifier.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 4, 2014
    Assignee: SAP SE
    Inventors: Guy Rozenwald, Uri Haham, Tal Kellner
  • Patent number: 8874893
    Abstract: Awareness of the relationships among the operating parameters for an individual core and among cores allows dynamic and intelligent management of the multi-core system. The relationships among operating parameters and cores, which can be somewhat opaque, are established with design-time simulations, and adapted with run time data collected from operation of the multi-core system. The relationships are expressed with functions that translate between operating parameters, between different cores, and between operating parameters of different cores. These functions are embodied in circuitry built into the multi-core system. The circuitry will be referred to hereinafter as a translator unit. The translator unit traverses the complex relational dependencies among multiple operating parameters and multiple cores, and determines an outcome with respect to one or more constraints corresponding to those operating parameters and cores.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 28, 2014
  • Patent number: 8868848
    Abstract: A computer system may comprise a computer platform and input-output devices. The computer platform may include a plurality of heterogeneous processors comprising a central processing unit (CPU) and a graphics processing unit (GPU) and a shared virtual memory supported by a physical private memory space of at least one heterogeneous processor or a physical shared memory shared by the heterogeneous processor. The CPU (producer) may create shared multi-version data and store such shared multi-version data in the physical private memory space or the physical shared memory. The GPU (consumer) may acquire or access the shared multi-version data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2014
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Ying Gao, Hu Chen, Shoumeng Yan, Xiaocheng Zhou, Sai Luo, Bratin Saha
  • Patent number: 8868941
    Abstract: An interconnect-power-manager (IPM) cooperates and communicates signals with an integrated-circuit-system-power-manager (SPM) in the integrated-circuit. The interconnect network (IN) is partitioned into multiple power domains and has hardware circuitry integrated into the IN to manage a quiescent state for all components in each power domain in the IN when a routing pathway for transactions in the IN spans across one or more power domain boundaries and causes interdependencies of power domains within the IN other than where the power domains of the initiator agent and final target agent of the transaction are located within. The SPM is configured to cooperate and communicate with the IPM to quiesce, to wake up, and any combination of the two, one or more of the multiple power domains within the IN.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2014
    Assignee: Sonics, Inc.
    Inventors: Doddaballapur N. Jayasimha, Drew E. Wingard, Stephen W. Hamilton
  • Publication number: 20140310504
    Abstract: Systems and methods for flag tracking in data manipulation operations involving move elimination. An example processing system comprises a first data structure including a plurality of physical register values; a second data structure including a plurality of pointers referencing elements of the first data structure; a third data structure including a plurality of move elimination sets, each move elimination set comprising two or more bits representing two or more logical data registers, the third data structure further comprising at least one bit associated with each move elimination set, the at least one bit representing one or more logical flag registers; a fourth data structure including an identifier of a data register sharing an element of the first data structure with a flag register; and a move elimination logic configured to perform a move elimination operation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 11, 2013
    Publication date: October 16, 2014
    Inventors: VIJAYKUMAR B. KADGI, JEREMY R. ANDERSON, JAMES D. HADLEY, TONG LI, MATTHEW C. MERTEN
  • Patent number: 8862917
    Abstract: The aspects enable a multi-core processor or system on chip to determine a low power configuration that provides the most system power savings by placing selected resources in a low power mode depending upon acceptable system latencies, dynamic operating conditions (e.g., temperature), expected idle time, and the unique electrical characteristics of the particular device. Each of the cores/processing units treated in a symmetric fashion, and each core may choose its operating state independent of the other cores, without performing complex handshaking or signaling operations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 14, 2014
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Tracy A. Ulmer, Andrew J. Frantz, Norman S. Gargash, Michael Abel
  • Patent number: 8838900
    Abstract: A cache-coherence protocol distributes atomic operations among multiple processors (or processor cores) that share a memory space. When an atomic operation that includes an instruction to modify data stored in the shared memory space is directed to a first processor that does not have control over the address(es) associated with the data, the first processor sends a request, including the instruction to modify the data, to a second processor. Then, the second processor, which already has control of the address(es), modifies the data. Moreover, the first processor can immediately proceed to another instruction rather than waiting for the address(es) to become available.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 10, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 16, 2014
    Assignee: Rambus Inc.
    Inventors: Qi Lin, Liang Peng, Craig E. Hampel, Thomas J. Sheffler, Steven C. Woo, Bohuslav Rychlik
  • Patent number: 8819396
    Abstract: A data processing apparatus includes an output unit. The output unit determines, when parallel control is performed in a data processor created in the data processing apparatus so that plural processing modules forming the data processor perform data processing in parallel, on the basis of a value representing a parallel-processing time for which at least two processing modules are operated in parallel and a value representing a control time, which is not necessary when serial control is performed so that the processing modules serially perform data processing but which is necessary when the parallel control is performed so that the processing modules perform data processing in parallel, whether a time necessary to complete data processing performed by the data processor under the parallel control would be shorter than a time necessary to complete data processing performed by the data processor under the serial control, and outputs a determination result.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2014
    Assignee: Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Ryoko Usuba
  • Patent number: 8806251
    Abstract: An electric device is capable of operating in a normal operation mode and a power save operation mode. The electric device includes a first processor for processing information input externally in the normal operation mode, and a second processor for processing an internal operation of the electric device in the normal operation mode. The second processor consumes power smaller than that of the first processor. In the electric device, power of the first processor is restricted through a restriction process in the power save operation mode. Further, in the power save operation mode, the second processor restricts the internal operation and processes the information input externally. When the second processor detects the information input externally, power of the first processor is released through a restriction releasing process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 12, 2014
    Assignee: Oki Data Corporation
    Inventor: Tatsumi Yamaguchi
  • Patent number: 8799687
    Abstract: A processor may include power management techniques to, dynamically, chose an optimal C-state for the processing core. The measurement of real workloads on the OSes exhibit two important observations (1) the bursts of high interrupt rate are interspersed between the low interrupt rate periods and long periods of high activity levels; and (2) the interrupt rate may, suddenly, fall below an interrupt rate (of 1 milli-second, for example) that is typical of the current operating systems (OS). Instead of determining the C-state based on the stale data stored in the counters, the power control logic may determine an optimal C-state by overriding the C-state determined by the OS or any other power monitoring logic. The power control logic may, dynamically, determine an optimal C-state based on the CPU idle residency times and variable rate wakeup events to match the expected wakeup event rate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 5, 2014
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Alon Naveh, Eliezer Weissmann, Ofer Nathan, Nadav Shulman
  • Patent number: 8780120
    Abstract: Techniques for GPU self throttling are described. In one or more embodiments, timing information for GPU frame processing is obtained using a timeline for the GPU. This may occur by inserting callbacks into the GPU processing timeline. An elapsed time for unpredictable work that is inserted into the GPU workload is determined based on the obtained timing information. A decision is then made regarding whether to “throttle” designated optional/non-critical portions of the work for a frame based on the amount of elapsed time. In one approach the elapsed time is compared to a configurable timing threshold. If the elapsed time exceeds the threshold, work is throttled by performing light or no processing for one or more optional portions of a frame. If the elapsed time is less than the threshold, heavy processing (e.g., “normal” work) is performed for the frame.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 15, 2014
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Nicholas P. Sagall, Christopher J. Tector, Orest B. Zborowski
  • Publication number: 20140173252
    Abstract: Aspects may include a method of designing a system-on-chip. The method may include receiving multiple processing modules, each representing in software one of multiple processing units of a system-on-chip. The method may further include modeling communications from one or more of the multiple processing modules as accesses to memory. The method may further include generating a coherent memory module associated with the multiple processing modules based on modeling the communications from the one or more of the multiple processing modules as accesses to memory. The coherent memory module may represent in software a coherent memory associated with the multiple processing units.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 14, 2012
    Publication date: June 19, 2014
    Applicant: FUJITSU LIMITED
    Inventors: Mitsuru TOMONO, Hiroaki YOSHIDA, Kodai MORITAKA
  • Patent number: 8726295
    Abstract: Data processing on a network on chip (‘NOC’) that includes IP blocks, routers, memory communications controllers, and network interface controllers; each IP block adapted to a router through a memory communications controller and a network interface controller; each memory communications controller controlling communication between an IP block and memory; each network interface controller controlling inter-IP block communications through routers; each IP block adapted to the network by a low latency, high bandwidth application messaging interconnect comprising an inbox and an outbox; a computer software application segmented into stages, each stage comprising a flexibly configurable module of computer program instructions identified by a stage ID with each stage executing on a thread of execution on an IP block; and at least one of the IP blocks comprising an input/output (‘I/O’) accelerator that administers at least some data communications traffic to and from the at least one IP block.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 13, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Russell D. Hoover, Jon K. Kriegel, Eric O. Mejdrich
  • Patent number: 8719552
    Abstract: A cache collaboration method includes obtaining, by an upper-layer cache node, bandwidth utilization rates of a backbone port and an edge port of the upper-layer cache node respectively, related information which is about each content obtained by a user in a preset time through the backbone port of the upper-layer cache node, and an access count of the user to each content; comparing, by the upper-layer cache node, the bandwidth utilization rate of the backbone port and the bandwidth utilization rate of the edge port; and when a difference between the bandwidth utilization rate of the backbone port and the bandwidth utilization rate of the edge port is greater than a preset value, sending, by the upper-layer cache node, a collaboration request message to a lower-layer cache node to make the lower-layer cache node adjust a collaboration proportion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2014
    Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Youshui Long
  • Publication number: 20140122835
    Abstract: A method and system are provided for deriving a resultant compiled software code with increased compatibility for placement and routing of a dynamically reconfigurable processor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Publication date: May 1, 2014
    Inventor: ROBERT KEITH MYKLAND
  • Patent number: 8707062
    Abstract: For one disclosed embodiment, a processor comprises a first processor core, a second processor core, and a cache memory. The first processor core is to save a state of the first processor core and to enter a mode in which the first processor core is powered off. The second processor core is to save a state of the second processor core and to enter a mode in which the second processor core is powered off. The cache memory is to be powered when the first processor core is powered off. The first processor core is to restore the saved state of the first processor core in response to the first processor core transitioning to a mode in which the first processor core is powered. The second processor core is to restore the saved state of the second processor core in response to the second processor core transitioning to a mode in which the second processor core is powered. Other embodiments are also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 16, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 22, 2014
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Sanjeev Jahagirdar, Varghese George, John B. Conrad, Robert Milstrey, Stephen A. Fischer, Alon Naveh, Shai Rotem
  • Patent number: 8701119
    Abstract: An improved method for parsing XML data or NVP data in software is disclosed. The method takes advantage of some modern processors' architecture which has multiple execution units. The multiple execution units allow multiple processing loops to occur in parallel. Instructions can be ordered so that the maximum delay in finishing a task is determined by the execution unit with the most processing to perform. Corresponding cycles in the remaining execution units can then be filled to perform other operations in parallel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 27, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2014
    Inventor: Richard A. Ross
  • Patent number: 8683474
    Abstract: In an accounting apparatus, a conflict determination unit determines whether or not the accounting mode is in a conflict state where a process is executing in another logical CPU and stores the determination result in an accounting information storage unit, when a process of the user starts to be executed in a logical CPU of an SMT processor. And a CPU use time acquisition unit collects the CPU use time of the process in the conflict state or the non-conflict state distinctively and stores it in an accounting information storage unit. Thereafter, a CPU use time conversion unit converts the CPU use time in the conflict state, with a predetermined weighting, based on the CPU use time in the conflict state and the non-conflict state, after the end of executing the process, and an accounting calculation unit calculates the accounting amount for the process from an effective use time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2014
    Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
    Inventors: Shuji Yamamura, Kouichi Kumon
  • Publication number: 20140082326
    Abstract: Some embodiments relate to a vehicle electronic controller having a microcomputer and a port expansion element, with reduced power consumption and radio noise. An MCU (microcomputer) performs determination processing that determines whether an output condition is established that is based on a signal that is input via a signal input port of the MCU. If the output condition is established, the MCU transmits a signal output instruction to a port expansion element via a communication port, and if not, the instruction is not transmitted. The port expansion element outputs a signal via a signal output port in response to an instruction from the MCU. The port expansion element automatically switches, depending on whether communication via the MCU is being suspended, between operation in a waiting mode in which the internal oscillation circuit is suspended, and operation in a normal mode in which the internal oscillation circuit is operated.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 21, 2013
    Publication date: March 20, 2014
    Applicant: SUMITOMO WIRING SYSTEMS, LTD.
    Inventors: Hiroaki TAKAHASHI, Takaki KISHIDA, Tomohide HAYASHI, Tomoya HAYASHI
  • Publication number: 20140082325
    Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed to automatically generate a processor architecture for a custom integrated circuit (IC) described by a computer readable code. The IC has one or more timing and hardware constraints. The system extracts parameters defining the processor architecture from a static profile and a dynamic profile of the computer readable code; iteratively optimizes the processor architecture by changing one or more parameters until all timing and hardware constraints expressed as a cost function are met; and synthesizes the generated processor architecture into a computer readable description of the custom integrated circuit for semiconductor fabrication.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 1, 2013
    Publication date: March 20, 2014
    Inventors: Anand Pandurangan, Satish Padmanabhan, Siva Selvaraj, Ananth Durbha, Suresh Kadiyala, Pius Ng, Sanjay Banerjee
  • Patent number: 8671293
    Abstract: Techniques described herein generally relate to optimizing energy consumption in a computer system. In some examples an energy usage benchmark can be determined for a system component of the computer system by measuring performance levels and energy usages of the system component under a range of energy settings and utilization rates of the system component. A utilization rate of the system component can be determined based on prediction factors including the execution of a first set of instructions on the computer system. The system component can be configured to execute a second set of instructions after the first set of instructions by selecting an energy setting from the range of energy settings for operating the system component. The energy setting can be selected based on the energy usage benchmark and the determined utilization rate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 11, 2014
    Assignee: Empire Technology Development LLC
    Inventors: Yong Qi, Yuehua Dai
  • Publication number: 20140040595
    Abstract: A processor may efficiently implement register renaming and checkpoint repair even in instruction set architectures with large numbers of wide (bit-width) registers by (i) renaming all destination operand register targets, (ii) implementing free list and architectural-to-physical mapping table as a combined array storage with unitary (or common) read, write and checkpoint pointer indexing and (iiii) storing checkpoints as snapshots of the mapping table, rather than of actual register contents. In this way, uniformity (and timing simplicity) of the decode pipeline may be accentuated and architectural-to-physical mappings (or allocable mappings) may be efficiently shuttled between free-list, reorder buffer and mapping table stores in correspondence with instruction dispatch and completion as well as checkpoint creation, retirement and restoration.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 1, 2012
    Publication date: February 6, 2014
    Applicant: FREESCALE SEMICONDUCTOR, INC.
    Inventor: Thang M. Tran
  • Publication number: 20140025926
    Abstract: A quantum information processor (QIP) may include a plurality of quantum registers, each quantum register containing at least one nuclear spin and at least one localized electronic spin. At least some of the quantum registers may be coherently coupled to each other by a dark spin chain that includes a series of optically unaddressable spins. Each quantum register may be optically addressable, so that quantum information can be initialized and read out optically from each register, and moved from one register to another through the dark spin chain, though an adiabatic sequential swap or through free-fermion state transfer. A scalable architecture for the QIP may include an array of super-plaquettes, each super-plaquette including a lattice of individually optically addressable plaquettes coupled to each other through dark spin chains, and separately controllable by confined microwave fields so as to permit parallel operations.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 14, 2011
    Publication date: January 23, 2014
    Applicant: PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE
    Inventors: Norman Y. Yao, Liang Jiang, Alexey Gorshkov, Peter C. Maurer, Geza Giedke, Juan Ignacio Cirac, Mikhail D. Lukin
  • Patent number: 8634302
    Abstract: An apparatus for providing multi-cell support in a telecommunications network is described. The apparatus includes a modem board and a multi-core processor having a plurality of processor cores attached to the modem board. A single partition is defined with all of the processor cores included in it. The single partition is used to execute all control plane functions and all data plane functions. Typically, the multi-core processor is configured to include a core abstraction layer that hides any core specific details from application software running on the processor cores in the single partition and to serve at least three cells in the telecommunications network, each cell having a corresponding uplink scheduler and a corresponding downlink scheduler. In this configuration there is no need to use a hypervisor, since there is only one OS instance running (a potential cost saving).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 30, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 21, 2014
    Assignee: Alcatel Lucent
    Inventors: Mohammad R. Khawer, Shriram K. Easwaran
  • Patent number: 8635620
    Abstract: A hardware device for concurrently processing a fixed set of predetermined tasks associated with an algorithm which includes a number of processes, some of the processes being dependent on binary decisions, includes a plurality of task units for processing data, making decisions and/or processing data and making decisions, including source task units and destination task units. A task interconnection logic means interconnect the task units for communicating actions from a source task unit to a destination task unit. Each of the task units includes a processor for executing only a particular single task of the fixed set of predetermined tasks associated with the algorithm in response to a received request action, and a status manager for handling the actions from the source task units and building the actions to be sent to the destination task units.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 3, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 21, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Alain Benayoun, Jean-Francois Le Pennec, Patrick Michel, Claude Pin
  • Publication number: 20140019716
    Abstract: Techniques are disclosed for forming a directly plateable diffusion barrier within an interconnect structure to prevent diffusion of interconnect fill metal into surrounding dielectric material and lower metal layers. The barrier can be used in back-end interconnect metallization processes and, in an embodiment, renders a seed layer unnecessary. In accordance with various example embodiments, the barrier can be implemented, for instance, as: (1) a single layer of ruthenium silicide (RuSix) or ruthenium silicide nitride (RuSixNy); (2) a bi-layer of Ru/RuSix, RuSix/Ru, Ru/RuSixNy, or RuSixNy/Ru; or (3) a tri-layer of Ru/RuSix/Ru or Ru/RuSixNy/Ru. In some embodiments, Si and/or N concentrations can be adjusted to alter the barrier's degree of diffusion protection, receptiveness to the fill metal, and/or electrical conductivity.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 10, 2012
    Publication date: January 16, 2014
    Inventor: Christopher J. Jezewski
  • Patent number: 8615647
    Abstract: Techniques to control power and processing among a plurality of asymmetric cores. In one embodiment, one or more asymmetric cores are power managed to migrate processes or threads among a plurality of cores according to the performance and power needs of the system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2013
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Herbert Hum, Eric Sprangle, Doug Carmean, Rajesh Kumar
  • Patent number: 8612726
    Abstract: The multi-cycle programmable processor emulates the features of a conventional microprocessor. Processor hardware functional units include a program counter (instruction pointer), an arithmetic and logic unit, an accumulator, an instruction register, a 2×1 multiplexer, 2×4 decoder, 1×2 decoder, an AND gate and an OR gate. Additionally, a controller modeled by a finite state machine (FSM) is operably connected to the microprocessor functional units and has a plurality of states that defines the operation of the microprocessor functional units. Each control state of the FSM implements the transfer of information between the registers of the datapath. The execution sequences through three states: an instruction fetch; an instruction decode; and instruction execute. The controller issues the required signals to the various hardware components to execute the instruction needed in three clock cycles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 17, 2013
    Assignee: King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals
    Inventors: Mohammad S. Sharawi, Muhammad Omer
  • Patent number: 8610725
    Abstract: Among other things, dynamically selecting or configuring one or more hardware resources to render a particular display data includes obtaining a request for rendering display data. The request includes a specification describing a desired rendering process. Based on the specification and the display data, hardware is selected or configured. The display data is rendered using the selected or configured hardware.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 17, 2013
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jeremy Todd Sandmel, John Stuart Harper, Kenneth Christian Dyke
  • Publication number: 20130305013
    Abstract: A microprocessor includes hardware registers that instantiate the IA-32 Architecture EDX and EAX GPRs and hardware registers that instantiate the Intel 64 Architecture R8-R15 GPRs. The microprocessor associates with each of the R8-R15 GPRs a respective unique MSR address. In response to an IA-32 Architecture RDMSR instruction that specifies the respective unique MSR address of one of the R8-R15 GPRs, the microprocessor reads the contents of the hardware register that instantiates the specified one of the R8-R15 GPRs into the hardware registers that instantiate the EDX:EAX registers. In response to an IA-32 Architecture WRMSR instruction that specifies the respective unique MSR address of one of the R8-R15 GPRs, the microprocessor writes into the hardware register that instantiates the specified one of the R8-R15 GPRs the contents of the hardware registers that instantiate the EDX:EAX registers. The microprocessor does so even when operating in non-64-modes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 1, 2013
    Publication date: November 14, 2013
    Applicant: VIA Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Mark John Ebersole
  • Publication number: 20130305014
    Abstract: A microprocessor includes hardware registers that instantiate the Intel 64 Architecture R8-R15 GPRs. The microprocessor associates with each of the R8-R15 GPRs a respective unique MSR address. The microprocessor also includes hardware registers that instantiate the ARM Architecture GPRs. In response to an ARM MRRC instruction that specifies the respective unique MSR address of one of the R8-R15 GPRs, the microprocessor reads the contents of the hardware register that instantiates the specified one of the R8-R15 GPRs into the hardware registers that instantiate two of the ARM GPRs registers. In response to an ARM MCRR instruction that specifies the respective unique MSR address of one of the R8-R15 GPRs, the microprocessor writes into the hardware register that instantiates the specified one of the R8-R15 GPRs the contents of the hardware registers that instantiate two of the ARM Architecture GPRs registers. The hardware registers may be shared by the two Architectures.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 1, 2013
    Publication date: November 14, 2013
    Applicant: VIA Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Mark John Ebersole
  • Publication number: 20130305012
    Abstract: A multi-core computing system includes a plurality of processor cores, a counter, and a register block including a plurality of event registers coupled to the plurality of processor cores. Each of the plurality of processor cores is configured to write event records to the event registers, and the register block is configured to generate a serialized event stream including event records written to the event registers. The system further includes an event stream processor configured to receive the serialized event stream, to analyze the serialized event stream to identify a counter update event record in the serialized event stream, and to update the counter in response to the counter update event record.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 10, 2012
    Publication date: November 14, 2013
    Applicant: Telefonaktiebolaget L M Ericsson (Publ)
    Inventor: Allen Hopley
  • Patent number: RE45487
    Abstract: A processor including a first execution core section clocked to perform execution operations at a first clock frequency, and a second execution core section clocked to perform execution operations at a second clock frequency which is different than the first clock frequency. The second execution core section runs faster and includes a data cache and critical ALU functions, while the first execution core section includes latency-tolerant functions such as instruction fetch and decode units and non-critical ALU functions. The processor may further include an I/O ring which may be still slower than the first execution core section. Optionally, the first execution core section may include a third execution core section whose clock rate is between that of the first and second execution core sections. Clock multipliers/dividers may be used between the various sections to derive their clocks from a single source, such as the I/O clock.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2015
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: David J. Sager, Thomas D. Fletcher, Glenn J. Hinton, Michael D. Upton