APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR DETERMINING LATENCY OF A NETWORK PORT
Granted: October 1, 2015
Application Number:
20150281031
One embodiment relates to a method for determining a latency of a network port. Read and write pointers for a FIFO are sampled at the same time. An average difference between a plurality of samples of the read and write pointers is determined. Another embodiment relates to an apparatus for providing timestamps to packets at a network port. Registers sample read and write pointers of a FIFO using a sampling clock. Logic circuitry determines an average difference between the read and write…
INTEGRATED CURRENT REPLICATOR AND METHOD OF OPERATING THE SAME
Granted: October 1, 2015
Application Number:
20150280558
An integrated current replicator includes a first current sense resistor configured to sense a first input current to a power converter during a primary portion of a duty cycle and a first transconductance amplifier configured produce a first voltage at a common circuit node proportional to the first input current during the primary portion of the duty cycle. The integrated current replicator includes a second current sense resistor configured to sense a second input current to the power…
SILICON-GLASS HYBRID INTERPOSER CIRCUITRY
Granted: August 20, 2015
Application Number:
20150235921
An interposer is provided. The interposer includes a silicon substrate layer, a glass substrate layer, and at least one through interposer via. The silicon substrate layer is formed on top of the glass substrate layer. The interposer may also be known as a hybrid interposer because it includes two different types of substrate layers forming one interposer. The through interposer via is formed to go through the silicon substrate layer and the glass substrate layer. The interposer may be…
METHODS FOR PACKAGING INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
Granted: August 13, 2015
Application Number:
20150228506
Techniques for packaging an integrated circuit include attaching a die to a conductive layer before forming dielectric layers on an opposing surface of the conductive layer. The conductive layer may first be formed on a carrier substrate before the die is disposed on the conductive layer. The die may be electrically coupled to the conductive layer via wires or solder bumps. The carrier substrate is removed before the dielectric layers are formed. The dielectric layers may collectively…
CONFIGURATION BIT ARCHITECTURE FOR PROGRAMMABLE INTEGRATED CIRCUIT DEVICE
Granted: July 30, 2015
Application Number:
20150214229
An array of memory cells on an integrated circuit device includes a plurality of memory cells arranged in at least one column. Each of the memory cells includes a plurality of transistors forming two complementary memory nodes. Each of the complementary memory nodes is connected to a respective pair of pull-up or pull-down transistors, which are connected in series and have a shared node between them. For a particular one of the memory cells, one of the shared nodes associated with one…
HIGH PERFORMANCE FINFET
Granted: July 23, 2015
Application Number:
20150206965
A FinFET is described having first, second, and third pluralities of fins with gate structures and source and drain regions formed on the fins so that PMOS transistors are formed on the first plurality of fins, NMOS transistors are formed on the second plurality and PMOS transistors are formed on the third plurality. In one embodiment, the first and second pluralities of fins are made of strained silicon; and the third plurality of fins is made of a material such as germanium or silicon…
DETERMINISTIC FIFO BUFFER
Granted: July 23, 2015
Application Number:
20150205579
One embodiment relates to a method for determining a latency of a FIFO buffer. A highest-order bit is provided from FIFO write and read counters to input-comparison logic that distinguishes between the highest-order write and read bits having a same logic level and the highest-order write and read bits having different logic levels. The occupancy level, and hence the latency, of the FIFO buffer is determined based on the output of the input-comparison logic. Another embodiment relates to…
MODULE HAVING MIRROR-SYMMETRIC TERMINALS AND METHODS OF FORMING THE SAME
Granted: July 16, 2015
Application Number:
20150200156
A module having substantially mirror-symmetric terminals and methods of forming the same. In one embodiment, the module has first and second module terminals and includes a first semiconductor device with first and second terminals in a substantially mirror-symmetric arrangement on the first semiconductor device and coupled to a first common node of the first semiconductor device. The module also includes a second semiconductor device including third and fourth terminals in a…
SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE HAVING MIRROR-SYMMETRIC TERMINALS AND METHODS OF FORMING THE SAME
Granted: July 16, 2015
Application Number:
20150200155
A semiconductor device having substantially minor-symmetric terminals and methods of forming the same. In one embodiment, the semiconductor device includes a semiconductor switch having a control node and a switched node, the switched node being coupled to first and second output terminals of the semiconductor device, the first and second output terminals being positioned in a substantially minor-symmetric arrangement on the semiconductor device. The semiconductor device also includes a…
INTEGRATED CIRCUIT WITH A HIGH-SPEED DEBUG ACCESS PORT
Granted: May 28, 2015
Application Number:
20150149843
An integrated circuit with a high-speed debug access port includes interface circuitry and a dedicated debug port in the interface circuitry. The interface circuitry includes a function circuit block that is used to receive a data packet from external circuitry coupled to the integrated circuit. The dedicated debug port is coupled to the function circuit block and is used to transmit the received data packet to debug circuitry on the integrated circuit. The interface circuitry may…
CONFIGURABLE MULTI-LANE SCRAMBLER FOR FLEXIBLE PROTOCOL SUPPORT
Granted: May 7, 2015
Application Number:
20150127856
Various structures and methods are disclosed related to configurable scrambling circuitry. Embodiments can be configured to support one of a plurality of protocols. Some embodiments relate to a configurable multilane scrambler that can be adapted either to combine scrambling circuits across a plurality of lanes or to provide independent lane-based scramblers. Some embodiments are configurable to select a scrambler type. Some embodiments are configurable to adapt to one of a plurality of…
METHODS AND TOOLS FOR DESIGNING INTEGRATED CIRCUITS WITH AUTO-PIPELINING CAPABILITIES
Granted: April 30, 2015
Application Number:
20150121319
A circuit designer may use computer-aided design (CAD) tools to implement an integrated circuit design. The CAD tools may include auto-pipelining capabilities to improve the performance of the integrated circuit design. Auto-pipelining may modify the number of pipeline registers in a path within a given range. A description of the integrated circuit design may include different implementation alternatives of a path each having a different number of pipeline registers, and the CAD tools…
CIRCUITRY AND TECHNIQUES FOR UPDATING CONFIGURATION DATA IN AN INTEGRATED CIRCUIT
Granted: April 23, 2015
Application Number:
20150113177
A method of operating an integrated circuit may include receiving an update request via an input-Output protocol, such as the Peripheral Interconnect Component Express (PCIe) protocol. The integrated circuit is placed in an update mode when the update request is received. State information is stored in predefined registers on the integrated circuit and configuration data on the integrated circuit may be subsequently updated. An asserted update mode signal is stored in a status register…
REGULATOR CIRCUITRY CAPABLE OF TRACKING REFERENCE VOLTAGES
Granted: March 12, 2015
Application Number:
20150070086
An integrated circuit having a regulator circuit capable of tracking reference voltages is provided. The integrated circuit includes shunt regulator circuitry. The shunt regulator circuitry includes a shunt regulator circuit and a voltage tracking circuit. The shunt regulator circuit has an output on which a regulated voltage is provided. The shunt regulator circuit also provides electrical current to the output when the regulated voltage is outside of a voltage range bounded by first…
FLOATING-POINT ADDER CIRCUITRY
Granted: March 5, 2015
Application Number:
20150067010
An integrated circuit is provided that performs floating-point addition or subtraction operations involving at least three floating-point numbers. The floating-point numbers are pre-processed by dynamically extending the number of mantissa bits, determining the floating-point number with the biggest exponent, and shifting the mantissa of the other floating-point numbers to the right. Each extended mantissa has at least twice the number of bits of the mantissa entering the floating-point…
METASTABILITY PREDICTION AND AVOIDANCE IN MEMORY ARBITRATION CIRCUITRY
Granted: February 19, 2015
Application Number:
20150052380
An integrated circuit with hazard prediction and prevention circuitry is provided. The hazard prediction circuitry may predict a future hazard condition between two periodic signals, and the hazard prevention circuitry may selectively delay at least one of the two periodic signals to avoid the predicted hazard condition. Single-port memory cells may provide multiport memory functionality using an arbitration circuit that includes the hazard prediction and prevention circuitry and…
Efficient Complex Multiplication and Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) Implementation on the ManArray Architecture
Granted: February 5, 2015
Application Number:
20150039856
Efficient computation of complex multiplication results and very efficient fast Fourier transforms (FFTs) are provided. A parallel array VLIW digital signal processor is employed along with specialized complex multiplication instructions and communication operations between the processing elements which are overlapped with computation to provide very high performance operation. Successive iterations of a loop of tightly packed VLIWs are used allowing the complex multiplication pipeline…
ERROR RESILIENT PACKAGED COMPONENTS
Granted: January 29, 2015
Application Number:
20150028918
A packaged component may include an interposer and integrated circuit dies mounted on the interposer. At least one of the dies may be a radiation-hardened integrated circuit die, whereas the remaining dies may be non-radiation-hardened dies. If desired, the interposer may be a radiation-hardened interposer whereas the integrated circuit dies may be non-radiation-hardened dies. The radiation-hardened die or the radiation-hardened interposer may include monitor circuitry that is used to…
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SECURING CONFIGURATION SCAN CHAINS OF A PROGRAMMABLE DEVICE
Granted: January 29, 2015
Application Number:
20150033360
Scan chain circuitry on an integrated circuit device includes a plurality of memory elements, and a plurality of control elements. Each of the control elements is located between respective ones of the plurality of memory elements for controllably connecting the plurality of memory elements into a scan chain. A plurality of respective scan enable activation elements controls a respective subplurality of the plurality of control elements for connecting a respective subplurality of the…
PROCESSORS OPERABLE TO ALLOW FLEXIBLE INSTRUCTION ALIGNMENT
Granted: January 29, 2015
Application Number:
20150032995
Methods and apparatus are provided for optimizing a processor core. Common processor subcircuitry is used to perform calculations for various types of instructions, including branch and non-branch instructions. Increasing the commonality of calculations across different instruction types allows branch instructions to jump to byte aligned memory address even if supported instructions are multi-byte or word aligned.
