GENERATING INTEGRATED CIRCUIT FLOORPLAN LAYOUTS
Granted: January 27, 2011
Application Number:
20110023000
A method of generating a floorplan layout of an integrated circuit (IC) that is amenable to implementation in a computer-aided design tool. The method is capable of performing placement and routing processing for the IC while requiring very little information about the specific circuitry used in various functional blocks of the IC. For example, at the time of the placement and routing processing, one or more functional blocks of the IC can be specified as empty functional blocks and/or…
ESTABLISHING BENCHMARKS FOR ANALYZING BENEFITS ASSOCIATED WITH VOLTAGE SCALING, ANALYZING THE BENEFITS AND AN APPARATUS THEREFOR
Granted: January 27, 2011
Application Number:
20110023004
Methods for establishing benchmarks and for analyzing benefits associated with voltage scaling are provided. In one embodiment, the method for establishing benchmarks includes: (1) synthesizing a netlist from a RTL of a functional IC design; (2) implementing a layout of an IC from the netlist, wherein the synthesizing and the implementing are performed at designated voltages and frequencies over a voltage and a frequency range, the voltage range including a voltage scaling range and a…
Digitally Obtaining Contours of Fabricated Polygons
Granted: January 20, 2011
Application Number:
20110016436
The present invention provides a method for digitally obtaining contours of fabricated polygons. A GDS polygon described in a Geographic Data System (GDS) file is provided. Based on the GDS polygon, a plurality of identical polygons is fabricated with the same fabrication process such that shapes of the plurality of identical polygons are altered by optical effects in the same or similar way. The plurality of identical polygons forms poly-silicon gates of a plurality of test transistors.…
VIRTUALIZED DATA STORAGE IN A NETWORK COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT
Granted: January 20, 2011
Application Number:
20110016272
Methods and systems for load balancing read/write requests of a virtualized storage system. In one embodiment, a storage system includes a plurality of physical storage devices and a storage module operable within a communication network to present the plurality of physical storage devices as a virtual storage device to a plurality of network computing elements that are coupled to the communication network. The virtual storage device comprises a plurality of virtual storage volumes,…
MANAGING BACKUP DEVICE METADATA IN A HIGH AVAILABILITY DISK SUBSYSTEM
Granted: January 20, 2011
Application Number:
20110016260
A system includes a data storage device, a controller coupled with the data storage device, a backup device coupled with the controller for backing up a modified portion of data and volatile memory metadata stored by the controller, and a backup power source for powering the controller. The controller includes a pre-specified region of volatile memory for storing backup device metadata for managing a modified portion of data, the metadata comprising one or more intents corresponding to…
BLOCK-LEVEL DATA DE-DUPLICATION USING THINLY PROVISIONED DATA STORAGE VOLUMES
Granted: January 20, 2011
Application Number:
20110016152
Data segments are logically organized in groups in a data repository. Each segment is stored at an index in the data repository. In association with a write request, a hash algorithm is applied to the data segment to generate a group identifier. Each group is identifiable by a corresponding group identifier. The group identifier is applied to a hash tree to determine whether a corresponding group in the data repository exists. Each existing group in the data repository corresponds to a…
PREVENTING UNAUTHORIZED USE OF OPTICAL DISCS
Granted: January 13, 2011
Application Number:
20110007618
An optical-disc writer writes extrinsic data to an optical disc. Extrinsic data can be written as (i) embedded marks (e.g., pits and lands) located outside the conventional readable area of a disc and/or (ii) alternative marks, such as surface marks located on a surface of the disc. In an optical-disc player having a disc-reading subsystem and a read controller, the disc-reading subsystem reads and relays the extrinsic data to the read controller, which controls the operations of the…
SOLDER INTERCONNECT BY ADDITION OF COPPER
Granted: January 13, 2011
Application Number:
20110006415
A method of forming an electronic device provides an electronic device substrate having a solder bump pad located thereover. A nickel-containing layer is located over the solder bump pad. A copper-containing layer is formed on the nickel-containing layer prior to subjecting the electronic device to a reflow process.
SUPPRESSING FRACTURES IN DICED INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
Granted: January 13, 2011
Application Number:
20110006389
A semiconductor device has a singulated die having a substrate and a die edge. An interconnect dielectric layer is located on the substrate, and integrated circuit has interconnections located within the interconnect dielectric layer. A trench is located in the interconnect dielectric layer and between a seal ring and a remnant of the interconnect dielectric layer. The seal ring is located within the interconnect dielectric layer and between the trench and the integrated circuit, with…
LOAD BALANCING WITH SCSI I/O REFERRALS
Granted: January 6, 2011
Application Number:
20110004707
A method and/or system may be configured to receive an input/output (I/O) request from an initiator system, add priority information to a multiple path referral for each port on which data can be accessed, selectively omit ports on which data may be accessed, transmit the multiple path referral from the target to the initiator, and/or choose a path on the initiator with the highest performance.
SECURE ELECTRICALLY PROGRAMMABLE FUSE AND METHOD OF OPERATING THE SAME
Granted: January 6, 2011
Application Number:
20110002186
An electrically programmable fuse, a method of operating the same and an integrated circuit (IC) incorporating the fuse or the method. In one embodiment, the fuse includes: (1) at least one fuse element configured to be programmed with contents and (2) an inhibitor coupled to the at least one fuse element and configured to be activated to inhibit subsequent reprogramming of the at least one fuse element.
AUTO-CALCULATED LENGTH DETERMINATION AND DISPLAY
Granted: December 30, 2010
Application Number:
20100325909
In one embodiment, a tape measure having a tape, housing, and an input, has an OLED strip overlaid on top of the tape. The housing contains a programmable controller and a rolled-up portion of the tape. A specified fraction of the length of the linear target is provided to the controller using the input. The tape may be extracted from the housing to generate an exposed portion of the tape corresponding to the total length of a linear target. The controller receives information indicative…
LEAD FRAME DESIGN TO IMPROVE RELIABILITY
Granted: December 23, 2010
Application Number:
20100319987
An electronic device package 100 comprising a lead frame having at least one lead 110 with a notch 205. The notch includes at least one reentrant angle 210 of greater than 180 degrees and the notch is located distal to a cut end 1010 of the lead.
METHOD OF GENERATING A LEADFRAME IC PACKAGE MODEL, A LEADFRAME MODELER AND AN IC DESIGN SYSTEM
Granted: December 16, 2010
Application Number:
20100318340
A method of generating a model of a leadframe IC package, a leadframe modeler and an IC design system are disclosed. In one embodiment the method includes: (1) adding connectivity information to a geometric representation of a leadframe, wherein the connectivity information represents electrical connections between the IC die and leads of the leadframe and (2) formatting the leads to represent BGA point of contacts for the IC die.
SCALABLE PACKET-SWITCH
Granted: December 16, 2010
Application Number:
20100316062
A scalable packet switch possessing a multiport memory, a multiport memory manager, two or more input/output (I/O) ports, and two or more switch engines. Each switch engine is associated with one or more I/O ports, and is adapted to receive inbound packets and transmit outbound packets via the associated I/O ports. Inbound packets are stored in a shared packet buffer. Each switch engine is further adapted to (i) determine (i.e., bridge) the outbound I/O port(s) for received inbound…
ELECTRONIC DEVICE PACKAGE AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURE
Granted: December 16, 2010
Application Number:
20100314747
A method of manufacturing an electronic device package. Coating a first side of a metallic layer with a first insulating layer and coating a second opposite side of the metallic layer with a second insulating layer. Patterning the first insulating layer to expose bonding locations on the first side of the metallic layer, and patterning the second insulating layer such that remaining portions of the second insulating layer on the second opposite side are located directly opposite to the…
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROTECTING THE INTEGRITY OF CACHED DATA IN A DIRECT-ATTACHED STORAGE (DAS) SYSTEM
Granted: December 9, 2010
Application Number:
20100312960
A DAS system that implements RAID technology is provided in which an array of solid state disks (SSDs) that is external to the DAS controllers of the DAS system is used by the DAS controllers as WB cache memory for performing WB caching operations. Using the external SSD array as WB cache memory allows the DAS system to be fully cache coherent without significantly increasing the complexity of the DAS system and without increasing the amount of bandwidth that is utilized for performing…
BRIDGE APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR COUPLING MULTIPLE NON-FIBRE CHANNEL DEVICES TO A FIBRE CHANNEL ARBITRATED LOOP
Granted: December 2, 2010
Application Number:
20100303085
Apparatus and methods for an enhanced bridge device for coupling multiple non-Fibre Channel storage devices to a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) communication medium. Features and aspects hereof provide for FC-AL enhanced circuits for processing loop port bypass (LPB) and loop port enable (LPE) primitive sequences addressed to any target arbitrated loop physical address (T-ALPA) associated with a storage device coupled with the bridge regardless of the present bypassed/non-bypassed…
APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR ACCESS FAIRNESS FOR A MULTIPLE TARGET BRIDGE/ROUTER IN A FIBRE CHANNEL ARBITRATED LOOP SYSTEM
Granted: December 2, 2010
Application Number:
20100303084
Apparatus and methods improved fair access to a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) communication medium through a bridge device. The enhanced bridge device provides for a fair access in a currently open access window for all presently requesting devices coupled through the bridge device to the FC-AL communication medium. Thus all devices on the loop whether coupled directly or through a bridge device can be assured fair access to the loop when there are simultaneous requests during an…
ALUMINUM BOND PADS WITH ENHANCED WIRE BOND STABILITY
Granted: December 2, 2010
Application Number:
20100300741
An electronic device bond pad includes an Al layer located over an electronic device substrate. The Al layer includes an intrinsic group 10 metal located therein.
