Modifying carrier packets based on information in tunneled packets
Granted: December 8, 2020
Patent Number:
10862809
The described embodiments include an electronic device that handles network packets. During operation, the electronic device receives a carrier packet, the carrier packet that includes a tunneled packet in a payload of the carrier packet, wherein the tunneled packet includes a packet priority of the tunneled packet and the carrier packet includes a packet priority of the carrier packet. The electronic device then updates the packet priority of the carrier packet based on the packet…
Sense amplifier with increased headroom
Granted: December 8, 2020
Patent Number:
10861507
Systems, apparatuses, and methods for implementing a sampling circuit with increased headroom are disclosed. A sampling circuit includes at least a pair of input signal transistors connected via their drains to a cross-coupled pair of state nodes. The cross-coupled pair of state nodes are coupled to a tail transistor device via the sources of N-type transistors. When clock goes low, the circuit precharges the cross-coupled pair of state nodes while simultaneously attempting to amplify…
Dynamic control of multi-region fabric
Granted: December 8, 2020
Patent Number:
10861504
Systems, apparatuses, and methods for implementing dynamic control of a multi-region fabric are disclosed. A system includes at least one or more processing units, one or more memory devices, and a communication fabric coupled to the processing unit(s) and memory device(s). The system partitions the fabric into multiple regions based on different traffic types and/or periodicities of the clients connected to the regions. For example, the system partitions the fabric into a stutter region…
Redundancy method and apparatus for shader column repair
Granted: December 8, 2020
Patent Number:
10861122
Methods, systems and non-transitory computer readable media are described. A system includes a shader pipe array, a redundant shader pipe array, a sequencer and a redundant shader switch. The shader pipe array includes multiple shader pipes, each of which perform rendering calculations on data provided thereto. The redundant shader pipe array also performs rendering calculations on data provided thereto. The sequencer identifies at least one defective shader pipe in the shader pipe…
Clock synthesizer with integrated voltage droop detection and clock stretching
Granted: December 1, 2020
Patent Number:
10855222
A clock synthesizer has integrated voltage droop detection and clock stretching. An oscillator of the clock synthesizer receives a control current from a digital to analog converter and generates an oscillator output signal. A droop detector and clock stretching circuit responds to a voltage droop of a supply voltage supplying circuits coupled to the oscillator output signal, to cause a portion of the oscillator control current to be diverted from the oscillator to thereby cause the…
Hierarchical register file at a graphics processing unit
Granted: December 1, 2020
Patent Number:
10853904
A processor employs a hierarchical register file for a graphics processing unit (GPU). A top level of the hierarchical register file is stored at a local memory of the GPU (e.g., a memory on the same integrated circuit die as the GPU). Lower levels of the hierarchical register file are stored at a different, larger memory, such as a remote memory located on a different die than the GPU. A register file control module monitors the status of in-flight wavefronts at the GPU, and in…
Controlling accesses to a branch prediction unit for sequences of fetch groups
Granted: December 1, 2020
Patent Number:
10853075
An electronic device handles accesses of a branch prediction functional block when executing instructions in program code. The electronic device includes a processor having the branch prediction functional block that provides branch prediction information for control transfer instructions (CTIs) in the program code and a minimum predictor use (MPU) functional block. The MPU functional block determines, based on a record associated with a given fetch group of instructions, that a…
Receiver design with reduced variation
Granted: November 24, 2020
Patent Number:
10848135
A receiver circuit holds an output voltage at a first output voltage level using a first device of a first type coupled between a first node and a first power supply node, and a second device of a second type coupled between the first node and the first power supply node. The first device is selectively enabled using an input signal. The second device is selectively enabled using a feedback signal. The second device is substantially larger than the first device. The receiver circuit…
Reducing power needed to send signals over wires
Granted: November 24, 2020
Patent Number:
10848177
Methods and apparatus are described. A method, implemented in a decoder, includes receiving two or more signals from an encoder over two or more respective wires. At least one of the two or more signals includes at least one code that was recoded by the encoder. The decoder receives a recoding table. The recoding table provides a mapping indicating the recoding for each code that was recoded by the encoder in the received two or more signals. The decoder decodes the two or more received…
Symmetrical balanced c-element
Granted: November 24, 2020
Patent Number:
10848137
A C-element circuit for use in an oscillator or the like includes a first input terminal for receiving a first input signal, a second input terminal for receiving a second input signal, and an output latch for providing an output signal based on a relationship between the two input signals. A stack of input transistors is included with an outer pair of input transistors with gates connected to the first input terminal and an inner pair of input transistors with gates connected to a…
Dynamic page state aware scheduling of read/write burst transactions
Granted: November 24, 2020
Patent Number:
10846253
Systems, apparatuses, and methods for performing efficient memory accesses for a computing system are disclosed. When a memory controller in a computing system determines a threshold number of memory access requests have not been sent to the memory device in a current mode of a read mode and a write mode, a first cost corresponding to a latency associated with sending remaining requests in either the read queue or the write queue associated with the current mode is determined. If the…
System and method for processing a load micro-operation by allocating an address generation scheduler queue entry without allocating a load queue entry
Granted: November 24, 2020
Patent Number:
10846095
A system and method for a virtual load queue is described. Load micro-operations are processed through an instruction pipeline without requiring an entry in a load queue (LDQ). An address generation scheduler queue (AGSQ) entry is allocated to the load micro-operation and a LDQ entry is not allocated to the load micro-operation. The LDQ entries are reserved for the N oldest load micro-operations, where N is the depth of the LDQ. Deallocation of the AGSQ entry is done if the load…
Integrated heat spreader with configurable heat fins
Granted: November 17, 2020
Patent Number:
10840167
Various integrated heat spreaders and methods of making the same are disclosed. In one aspect, an integrated heat spreader to provide thermal management of a first heat generating component on a circuit board is provided. The integrated heat spreader includes a shell that has an internal space, at least one inlet port to receive a coolant to cool the first heat generating component and at least one outlet port to discharge the coolant. Plural heat fins are connected to the shell in the…
Timer for use dual voltage supplies
Granted: November 17, 2020
Patent Number:
10839875
A timing circuit includes an input for receiving the control signal from a logic circuit operating with a first supply voltage and an output for supplying a control signal to a circuit operating with a second supply voltage different from the first supply voltage. The timing circuit also includes a plurality of delay elements connected in series between the input and output and supplied with the first supply voltage, and one or more NFET footer transistors that couple respective delay…
Prioritizing local and remote memory access in a non-uniform memory access architecture
Granted: November 17, 2020
Patent Number:
10838864
A miss in a cache by a thread in a wavefront is detected. The wavefront includes a plurality of threads that are executing a memory access request concurrently on a corresponding plurality of processor cores. A priority is assigned to the thread based on whether the memory access request is addressed to a local memory or a remote memory. The memory access request for the thread is performed based on the priority. In some cases, the cache is selectively bypassed depending on whether the…
Device and method for cache utilization aware data compression
Granted: November 17, 2020
Patent Number:
10838727
A processing device is provided which includes memory and at least one processor. The memory includes main memory and cache memory in communication with the main memory via a link. The at least one processor is configured to receive a request for a cache line and read the cache line from main memory. The at least one processor is also configured to compress the cache line according to a compression algorithm and, when the compressed cache line includes at least one byte predicted not to…
Use of workgroups in pixel shader
Granted: November 10, 2020
Patent Number:
10832465
A technique for executing pixel shader programs is provided. The pixel shader programs are executed in workgroups, which allows access by work-items to a local data store and also allows program synchronization at barrier points. Utilizing workgroups allows for more flexible and efficient execution than previous implementations in the pixel shader stage. Several techniques for assigning fragments to wavefronts and workgroups are also provided. The techniques differ in the degree of…
Semiconductor chip gettering
Granted: November 3, 2020
Patent Number:
10825692
Various semiconductor chips with gettering regions and methods of making the same are disclosed. In one aspect, an apparatus is provided that includes a semiconductor chip that has a first side and a second side opposite the first side. The first side has a plurality of laser ablation craters. Each of the ablation craters has a bottom. A gettering region is in the semiconductor chip beneath the laser ablation craters. The gettering region includes plural structural defects. At least some…
Secured input/output resource protection
Granted: November 3, 2020
Patent Number:
10824349
A processing system includes a plurality of input/output (I/O) devices representing a plurality of I/O resources. Each I/O resource has at least one corresponding memory mapped I/O (MMIO) address range. A trap handler detects a write request targeting a configuration space of an identified I/O resource of the plurality of I/O resources and, responsive to determining the identified I/O resource is a protected I/O resource, selectively blocks the write request from further processing by…
Processor support for bypassing vector source operands
Granted: October 27, 2020
Patent Number:
10817302
Systems, apparatuses, and methods for implementing a high bandwidth, low power vector register file for use by a parallel processor are disclosed. In one embodiment, a system includes at least a parallel processing unit with a plurality of processing pipeline. The parallel processing unit includes a vector arithmetic logic unit and a high bandwidth, low power, vector register file. The vector register file includes multi-bank high density random-access memories (RAMs) to satisfy register…