Altera Patent Grants

Routing-efficient time division multiplexing (TDM) data path circuitry

Granted: April 2, 2019
Patent Number: 10250347
TDM circuitry that includes a rotary multiplexer and a memory circuit is provided. A first rotary multiplexer circuit may receive N-bit wide data in accordance to a time division multiple access (TDMA) scheme. The N-bit wide data includes multiple sets of M-bit wide data. The first rotary multiplexer may rotate these sets of the M-bit wide data. The memory circuit is coupled to the first rotary multiplexer circuit. The memory circuit stores each of rotated set of M-bit wide data. A…

Method and apparatus for placing and routing partial reconfiguration modules

Granted: March 26, 2019
Patent Number: 10242146
A method for designing a system on a target device includes assigning resources on the target device to static logic modules and partial reconfigurable (PR) modules in the system. The instances of one of the PR modules are placed and routed in parallel utilizing resources from those that are assigned. Other embodiments are also disclosed.

Methods for minimizing logic overlap on integrated circuits

Granted: March 26, 2019
Patent Number: 10242144
Configuration data for an integrated circuit may be generated using logic design equipment to implement an optimal design on the integrated circuit. Implementing the optimal design may include placing hardware resources within the integrated circuit to decrease or remove overlaps between corresponding hardware resources. A given hardware resource may be defined as a rectangular region, an adjacent hardware resource may be defined as another rectangular region, and together, they may be…

Reset sequencing for reducing noise on a power distribution network

Granted: March 26, 2019
Patent Number: 10242141
A computer-implemented method includes receiving a first circuit design for an integrated circuit device, determining when multiple power-drawing events are to occur at substantially the same time via one or more circuitry components of the integrated circuit device, which would have a disruptive effect on a power distribution network of the integrated circuit device, based on the first circuit design, and generating logic that schedules the more than one event so that the more than one…

Multi-channel encryption and authentication

Granted: March 19, 2019
Patent Number: 10237066
A scalable and efficient cryptographic architecture is provided for processing data using deeply-pipelined algorithms and circuitries. The architecture can be implemented as circuitry in a fixed logic device, or can be configured into a programmable integrated circuit device. The same top-level design may be used for different choices of data channels, processing depth, parallelism level, and/or system throughput. An encryption pipeline processing block performs rounds of processing upon…

Memory element write-assist circuitry with dummy bit lines

Granted: March 19, 2019
Patent Number: 10236055
Integrated circuits with memory elements are provided. In particular, a group of random-access memory cells may be coupled to first and second data lines via corresponding access transistors. One of the first and second data lines can be driven to a ground voltage level to write a zero or one into a selected memory cell in the group. A first dummy data line can be formed adjacent to the first data line, whereas a second dummy data line can be formed adjacent to the second data line.…

Emulated multiport memory element circuitry with exclusive-OR based control circuitry

Granted: March 19, 2019
Patent Number: 10236043
Integrated circuits may include memory element circuitry. The memory element circuitry may include multiple dual-port memory elements that are controlled to effectively form a multi-port memory element having multiple read and write ports. A respective bank of dual-port memory elements may be coupled to each write port. Write data may be received concurrently over one or more of the write ports and stored on the banks. Switching circuitry may be coupled between the banks and the read…

Partial reconfiguration debugging using hybrid models

Granted: March 19, 2019
Patent Number: 10235485
Circuitry for the simulation of partial reconfiguration of a logic design for an integrated circuit device using a hybrid model is provided. The circuitry may create a hybrid model by combining structural model netlists of one or more partial reconfiguration partitions of the logic design with a behavioral model of a static partition of the logic design. The hybrid model may undergo partial reconfiguration verification to ensure that undefined signals do not bypass a freeze bridge and…

Apparatus and method for security in an integrated circuit

Granted: March 12, 2019
Patent Number: 10228415
Test circuitry for providing security in an integrated circuit includes a control circuit and a test power-on-reset circuit. The control circuit determines whether the integrated circuit is configured in a non-secure condition, and that generates a control signal in response to the non-secure condition. Accordingly, the test power-on-reset circuit selectively disables a power-on-reset circuit on the integrated circuit in response the control signal during test operations. The test…

Circuitry and method for decomposable decoder

Granted: March 12, 2019
Patent Number: 10230399
Decoder circuitry for an input channel having a data rate, where a codeword on the input channel includes a plurality of symbols, includes options to provide a first output channel having that data rate, and a plurality of second output channels having slower data rates. The decoder circuitry includes syndrome calculation circuitry, polynomial calculation circuitry, and search-and-correct circuitry. The syndrome calculation circuitry includes finite-field multipliers for multiplying each…

Method and apparatus for implementing configurable streaming networks

Granted: March 5, 2019
Patent Number: 10224934
A method of configuring a programmable integrated circuit device. A channel source within the virtual fabric is configured to receive input data from a first kernel outside of the virtual fabric and on the programmable integrated circuit device, and a channel sink within the virtual fabric is configured to transmit output data to the first kernel. The configuring of the channel source is modified such that the channel source receives input data from a second kernel in response to…

Dual signal protocol input/output (I/O) buffer circuit

Granted: March 5, 2019
Patent Number: 10224911
An integrated circuit (IC) device includes a first input/output (I/O) buffer circuit. The first input/output buffer circuit includes first and second groups of stacked transistors. The first group of stacked transistors transfer signals formatted in accordance with only one signal protocol from the group of signal protocols. The second group of stacked transistors transfers the signals formatted in accordance with more than one signal protocols. In addition, integrated circuit device…

Low frequency variation calibration circuitry

Granted: March 5, 2019
Patent Number: 10224908
An integrated circuit may include path delay calibration circuitry. The calibration circuitry may be configured to calibrate respective delay paths so that data and control signals travelling through the respective delay paths experience proper propagation delays during normal user operation. The calibration circuitry may include a high frequency error calibration circuit, a monitoring circuit, and a calibration processing circuit. The high frequency error calibration circuit may be used…

Dynamic tag allocation for clock reconvergence pessimism removal

Granted: March 5, 2019
Patent Number: 10223493
Electronic design automation tools may perform static timing analysis on an integrated circuit design. An integrated circuit design may have multiple nodes that can be traversed using a breadth-first search. To reduce the run-time of static timing analysis tools, tags recording arrival times associated with non-critical paths may have their consolidated in order to include only the critical timing information in the tag, thereby reducing the amount of data that is carried through to the…

Method and apparatus for improving system operation by replacing components for performing division during design compilation

Granted: March 5, 2019
Patent Number: 10223488
A method for designing a system on a target device includes identifying components in a netlist that perform a division operation. The netlist is modified during synthesis to utilize other components to compute a result of the division operation by performing a multiplication operation.

Multi-protocol configurable transceiver including configurable deskew in an integrated circuit

Granted: February 26, 2019
Patent Number: 10216219
A configurable multi-protocol transceiver implemented in an integrated circuit (“IC”) includes configurable deskew circuitry. The transceiver has various configurable deskew settings to facilitate effectively adapting transmit and/or receive communications corresponding to a selected one of a plurality of high-speed communication protocols and/or adapt to different implementations in which a deskew block addresses either just static skew or both static and dynamic skew. Configurable…

Dynamic clock-data phase alignment in a source synchronous interface circuit

Granted: February 26, 2019
Patent Number: 10218360
The present embodiments relate to clock-data phase alignment circuitry in source-synchronous interface circuits. Source-synchronous interface standards require the transmission and reception of a clock signal that is transmitted separately from the data signal. On the receiver side, the clock signal must be phase shifted relative to the data signal to enable the capture of the data. Clock-data phase alignment circuitry is presented that may receive a differential clock with complementary…

Smart diagnosis of integrated circuits including IP cores with encrypted simulation models

Granted: February 26, 2019
Patent Number: 10216877
The present embodiments relate to methods for simulating the behavior of an IP core that has an encrypted simulation model. The encrypted simulation model of the IP core may include a plurality of probes, which a debug option may activate selectively, if desired. The encrypted simulation model may collect data during a simulation as selected by the activated probes of the plurality of probes. The encrypted simulation model may perform smart diagnosis of the collected data based on a set…

Efficient virtual I/O address translation

Granted: February 26, 2019
Patent Number: 10216533
A method includes using a network interface controller to monitor a transmit ring, wherein the transmit ring comprises a circular ring data structure that stores descriptors, wherein a descriptor describes data and comprises a guest bus address that provides a virtual memory location of the data. The method also includes using the network interface controller to determine that a descriptor has been written to the transmit ring. The method further includes using the network interface…

Methods and apparatus for selectively extracting and loading register states

Granted: February 26, 2019
Patent Number: 10216254
Integrated circuits may include registers that store register states. Only a subset of the registers may store critical register states. The subset of registers may be specially demarcated, such as using synthesis directions in the hardware description, and may be coupled to dedicated extraction/loading circuitry. The extraction/loading circuitry may be implemented using soft or hard logic or can leverage existing programming or debugging circuitry on a programmable integrated circuit.…