Gate contact over active region in cell
Granted: October 27, 2020
Patent Number:
10818762
A system and method for laying out power grid connections for standard cells are described. In various implementations, gate metal is placed over non-planar vertical conducting structures, which are used to form non-planar devices (transistors). Gate contacts connect gate metal to gate extension metal (GEM) above the gate metal. GEM is placed above the gate metal and makes a connection with gate metal through the one or more gate contacts. Gate extension contacts are formed on the GEM…
Data processing system with decoupled data operations
Granted: October 27, 2020
Patent Number:
10817422
In one form, a data processing system includes a host integrated circuit having a memory controller, a memory bus coupled to the memory controller, and a memory module. The memory module includes a bulk memory and a memory module scratchpad coupled to the bulk memory, wherein the memory module scratchpad has a lower access overhead than the bulk memory. The memory controller selectively provides predetermined commands over the memory bus to cause the memory module to copy data between…
Adaptive error-controlled dynamic voltage and frequency scaling for low power video codecs
Granted: October 13, 2020
Patent Number:
10805643
Various codecs and methods of using the same are disclosed. In one aspect, a method of processing video data is provided that includes encoding or decoding the video data with a codec in aggressive deployment and correcting one or more errors in the encoding or decoding wherein the error correction includes re-encoding or re-decoding the video data in a non-aggressive deployment or generating a skip picture.
Distributed gather/scatter operations across a network of memory nodes
Granted: October 13, 2020
Patent Number:
10805392
Devices, methods, and systems for distributed gather and scatter operations in a network of memory nodes. A responding memory node includes a memory; a communications interface having circuitry configured to communicate with at least one other memory node; and a controller. The controller includes circuitry configured to receive a request message from a requesting node via the communications interface. The request message indicates a gather or scatter operation, and instructs the…
Forward rendering pipeline with light culling
Granted: October 13, 2020
Patent Number:
10803655
A method for enhanced forward rendering is disclosed which includes a depth pre-pass, light culling and a final shading. The depth pre-pass minimizes the cost of final shading by avoiding high pixel overdraw. The light culling stage calculates a list of light indices overlapping a pixel. The light indices are calculated on a per-tile basis, where the screen has been split into units of tiles. The final shading evaluates materials using information stored for each light. The forward…
Memory page access counts based on page refresh
Granted: October 13, 2020
Patent Number:
10802977
A processing system tracks counts of accesses to memory pages using a set of counters located at the memory module that stores the pages, wherein the counts are adjusted at least in part based on refreshes of the memory pages. This approach allows a processing system to efficiently maintain the counts with relatively small counters and with relatively low overhead. Furthermore, the rate at which the counters are adjusted, relative to the page refreshes, is adjustable, so that the access…
Generating vectorized control flow using reconverging control flow graphs
Granted: October 13, 2020
Patent Number:
10802806
A reconverging control flow graph is generated by receiving an input control flow graph including a plurality of basic code blocks, determining an order of the basic code blocks, and traversing the input control flow graph. The input control flow graph is traversed by, for each basic code block B of the plurality of basic code blocks, according to the determined order of the basic code blocks, visiting the basic code block B prior to visiting a subsequent block C of the plurality of…
Standard cell and power grid architectures with EUV lithography
Granted: October 6, 2020
Patent Number:
10796061
A system and method for creating chip layout are described. In various embodiments, a standard cell uses unidirectional tracks for power connections and signal routing. At least two tracks of the metal one layer using a minimum width of the metal one layer are placed within a pitch of a single metal gate to provide a standard cell with a two to one “gear ratio” or greater. A power signal and a ground reference signal in the metal one layer are routed in a same metal one track to…
Identifying primitives in input index stream
Granted: October 6, 2020
Patent Number:
10796483
Techniques for removing reset indices from, and identifying primitives in, an index stream that defines a set of primitives to be rendered, are disclosed. The index stream may be specified by an application program executing on the central processing unit. The technique involves classifying the primitive topology for the index stream as either requiring an offset-based technique or requiring a non-offset-based technique. This classification is done by determining whether, according to…
Pixel wait synchronization
Granted: October 6, 2020
Patent Number:
10796399
Systems, apparatuses, and methods for implementing pixel wait synchronization techniques are disclosed. A system includes a host processor and a graphics processor which includes at least one graphics pipeline. During execution of a graphics application, the host processor determines that a second draw call is dependent on a first draw call. The host processor issues a wait sync event prior to issuing the second draw call to the graphics pipeline responsive to determining that the first…
Allocation of memory buffers in computing system with multiple memory channels
Granted: October 6, 2020
Patent Number:
10795837
A method, computer program product, and system are provided for associating one or more memory buffers in a computing system with a plurality of memory channels. The method can include associating a first memory buffer to a first plurality of memory banks, where the first plurality of memory banks spans over a first set of one or more memory channels. Similarly, the method can include associating a second memory buffer to a second plurality of memory banks, where the second plurality of…
Compressing data for storage in cache memories in a hierarchy of cache memories
Granted: October 6, 2020
Patent Number:
10795825
An electronic device includes at least one compression-decompression functional block and a hierarchy of cache memories with a first cache memory and a second cache memory. The at least one compression-decompression functional block receives data in an uncompressed state, compresses the data using one of a first compression or a second compression, and, after compressing the data, provides the data to the first cache memory for storage therein. When the data is retrieved from the first…
Double spacer immersion lithography triple patterning flow and method
Granted: September 22, 2020
Patent Number:
10784154
A system and method for fabricating metal patterns are described. Multiple mandrels are formed on a first polysilicon layer which is on top of a first oxide layer. Each mandrel uses a second polysilicon on top of a first nitride. A spacer oxide and a spacer nitride are formed on the sidewalls of the mandrels to create double spacers. A second oxide layer is deposited followed by removing layers until the first nitride in the mandrels is reached. Areas are etched based on a selected…
Memory with expandable row width
Granted: September 22, 2020
Patent Number:
10783953
A method for operating a memory device includes initiating an access operation to a corresponding row of an array of bit cells of the memory device. Responsive to an expansion mode signal having a first state, the method further includes dynamically operating each column of a plurality of columns of the array to access each bit cell of a corresponding row within the plurality of columns during the access operation. Alternatively, responsive to the expansion mode state signal having a…
Texture residency checks using compression metadata
Granted: September 22, 2020
Patent Number:
10783694
A pipeline is configured to access a memory that stores a texture block and metadata that encodes compression parameters of the texture block and a residency status of the texture block. A processor requests access to the metadata in conjunction with requesting data in the texture block to perform a shading operation. The pipeline selectively returns the data in the texture block to the processor depending on whether the metadata indicates that the texture block is resident in the…
Near-memory data-dependent gather and packing
Granted: September 22, 2020
Patent Number:
10782918
Methods, systems, and devices for near-memory data-dependent gathering and packing of data stored in a memory. A processing device extracts a function, a memory source address, and a memory destination address from a near-memory data-dependent gathering and packing primitive. A signal to perform gathering and packing operations based on the primitive is sent to near-memory processing circuitry of a memory device. The near-memory processing circuitry receives the signal, gathers data from…
Housing of an electronic device
Granted: September 15, 2020
Patent Number:
D896217
Faster sparse flush recovery by creating groups that are marked based on an instruction type
Granted: September 15, 2020
Patent Number:
10776123
Systems, apparatuses, and methods for performing efficient processor pipeline flush recovery are disclosed. A processor core includes a retire queue for storing information of outstanding instructions. When the retire queue logic detects that a pipeline flush condition occurs, the logic creates one or more groups of entries in the retire queue. The logic begins the groups with an entry storing information for a youngest outstanding instruction, and creates other groups in a contiguous…
Method and apparatus for controlling power consumption of an integrated circuit
Granted: September 15, 2020
Patent Number:
10775876
A method and apparatus control power consumption of at least one functional unit on an integrated circuit by determining that a change in a first performance state is required for the at least one functional unit, and changing the first performance state to a second performance state that sets voltage for the functional unit to be at an under-voltage margin setting with respect to a nominal product minimum voltage of the functional unit.
Multi-tiered low power states
Granted: September 15, 2020
Patent Number:
10775874
A computer processing device transitions among a plurality of power management states and at least one power management sub-state. From a first state, it is determined whether an entry condition for a third state is satisfied. If the entry condition for the third state is satisfied, the third state is entered. If the entry condition for the third state is not satisfied, it is determined whether an entry condition for the first sub-state is satisfied. If the entry condition for the first…
