571 results about "Memory bus" patented technology

A multiple use core logic chipset is provided in a computer system that may be configured either as a bridge between an accelerated graphics port ("AGP") bus and host and memory buses, or as an interface bridge between a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop ("FC-AL") interface and the host and memory buses. The function of the multiple use chipset is determined at the time of manufacture of the computer system or in the field whether an AGP bus bridge or an FC-AL bridge interface is to be implemented. Selection of the type of bus bridge (AGP or FC-AL bridge interface) in the multiple use core logic chipset may be made by a hardware signal input, or by software during computer system configuration or power on self test ("POST"). Software configuration may also be determined upon detection of either an AGP or a FC-AL bridge interface device connected to the common AGP / FC-AL bus. FC-AL information may be stored in the computer system main memory using the high speed FC-AL bridge interface.

A system for interfacing with a co-processor or input / output device is disclosed. According to one embodiment, the system includes a computer processing unit, a memory module, a memory bus that connects the computer processing unit and the memory module, and a co-processing unit or input / output device, wherein the memory bus also connects the co-processing unit or input / output device to the computer processing unit.

A memory translation hub comprising a memory channel interface, a memory bus interface, and a command generator coupled to the memory channel interface and to the memory bus interface. The memory channel interface receives a memory control packet from a memory channel. The memory bus interface provides a memory bus. The command generator causes the memory bus interface to provide memory control signals on the memory bus responsive to the memory control packet.

A memory module for attachment to a computer system having a memory bus and a method of using the memory module for error correction by scrubbing soft errors on-board the module is provided. The module includes a printed circuit card with memory storage chips on the card to store data bits and associated ECC check bits. Tabs are provided on the circuit card to couple the card to the memory bus of the computer system. Logic circuitry selectively operatively connects and disconnects the memory chip and the memory bus. A signal processor is connected in circuit relationship with the memory chips. The logic circuitry selectively permits the signal processor to read the stored data bits and associated check bits from the memory chips, recalculate the check bits from the read stored data bits, compare the recalculated check bits with the stored check bits, correct all at least one bit errors in the store data bits and stored associated check bits and re-store the correct data bits and associated check bits in the memory chips. When the memory chips and the memory bus are disconnected, single bit soft errors occurring during storage of the data bits and check bits are corrected periodically before the data is read from the memory chips to the data bus on a read operation.

A uniform bus system is provided which operates without any special consideration by a programmer. Memories and peripheral may be connected to this bus system without any special measures. Likewise, units may be cascaded with the help of the bus system. The bus system combines a number of internal lines, and leads them as a bundle to terminals. The bus system control is predefined and does not require any influence by the programmer. Any number of memories, peripherals or other units can be connected to the bus system.

A memory module that has a plurality of memory devices and a memory module controller configured to receive a memory transaction from a first memory bus and to control access to the plurality of memory devices.

System and method for a unified memory and network controller for an all-flash array (AFA) storage blade in a distributed flash storage clusters over a fabric network. The unified memory and network controller has 3-way control functions including unified memory buses to cache memories and DDR4-AFA controllers, a dual-port PCIE interconnection to two host processors of gateway clusters, and four switch fabric ports for interconnections with peer controllers (e.g., AFA blades and / or chassis) in the distributed flash storage network. The AFA storage blade includes dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) and magnetoresistive random-access memory (MRAM) configured as data read / write cache buffers, and flash memory DIMM devices as primary storage. Remote data memory access (RDMA) for clients via the data caching buffers is enabled and controlled by the host processor interconnection(s), the switch fabric ports, and a unified memory bus from the unified controller to the data buffer and the flash SSDs.

A memory subsystem that includes segment level sparing. The memory subsystem includes a cascaded interconnect system with segment level sparing. The cascaded interconnect system includes two or more memory assemblies and a memory bus. The memory bus includes multiple segments and the memory assemblies are interconnected via the memory bus.

A SSD system directly connected to the system memory bus includes at least one system memory bus interface unit, one storage controller with associated data buffer / cache, one data interconnect unit, one nonvolatile memory (NVM) module, and flexible association between storage commands and the NVM module. A logical device interface, the Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) or NVM Express (NVMe), is used for the SSD system programming. The SSD system appears to the computer system physically as a dual-inline-memory module (DIMM) attached to the system memory controller, and logically as an AHCI device or an NVMe device. The SSD system may sit in a DIMM socket and scaling with the number of DIMM sockets available to the SSD applications. The invention moves the SSD system from I / O domain to the system memory domain.

Disclosed are methods and systems, among which is a system that includes a pattern-recognition processor, a central processing unit (CPU) coupled to the pattern-recognition processor via a pattern-recognition bus, and memory coupled to the CPU via a memory bus. In some embodiments, the pattern-recognition bus and the memory bus form about the same number of connections to the pattern-recognition processor and the memory, respectively.

A memory module includes a memory hub coupled to several memory devices. The memory hub includes at least one performance counter that tracks one or more system metrics—for example, page hit rate, number or percentage of prefetch hits, cache hit rate or percentage, read rate, number of read requests, write rate, number of write requests, rate or percentage of memory bus utilization, local hub request rate or number, and / or remote hub request rate or number.

Methods and apparatus for a memory system using line termination circuits in each memory unit (e.g., integrated circuit memory device) are disclosed. The memory unit contains termination control logic that sets the state of a controllable termination circuit to control reflections on the data bus. The termination control logic determines the proper state for the termination circuit from the state of its memory unit, and in some cases, from the approximate state of the data bus as gleaned from commands decoded from the command / address bus. A termination configuration register on the unit can be used to define the appropriate termination state for each unit state and / or data bus state.

In one embodiment, a memory system is disclosed. The memory system has at least one memory chip having an address and data interface coupled to an internal address and data bus, and a memory controller and interface chip also having a an address and data interface coupled to the address and data interface of the at least one memory chip via an internal address and data bus. The at least one memory chip, the memory controller and interface chip and the internal address and data bus are disposed within a common chip package. The memory controller and interface chip has an external interface configured to be coupled to a standard memory bus via external contacts of the common chip package.

A method of graphics processing includes determining a non-depth conditional status and an occlusion status of a fragment. Such a method may be used in culling occluded fragments before expending resources such as processing cycles and memory bus usage. In one example, a scratchpad stores depth values of robust fragments and is used for occlusion testing. Graphics architectures, and methods that include use of representative Z values, are also disclosed.

A memory subsystem that includes segment level sparing. The memory subsystem includes a cascaded interconnect system with segment level sparing. The cascaded interconnect system includes two or more memory assemblies and a memory bus. The memory bus includes multiple segments and the memory assemblies are interconnected via the memory bus.

A method and apparatus for detecting insertion and removal of memory modules in a computer system using standard connectors is disclosed. A memory controller includes logic to read serial presence bits from memory modules incorporating such serial presence features. In response to system software the memory controller monitors a particular slot connector where a memory module is to be inserted or removed. Changes in the serial presence bits indicate insertion or removal. Each slot connector is further connectable to a memory bus for insertion and removal of memory modules while the computer system is operational.

Systems and methods for providing performance monitoring in a memory system. Embodiments include a memory system for storing and retrieving data for a processing system. The memory system includes a memory controller, a plurality of memory devices, a memory bus and a memory hub device. The memory controller receives and responds to memory access requests. The memory bus is in communication with the memory controller. The memory hub device is in communication with the memory bus. The memory hub device includes a memory interface for transferring one or more of address, control and data information between the memory hub device and the memory controller via the memory bus. The memory hub device also includes a memory device interface for communicating with the memory devices. The memory hub device further includes a performance monitor for monitoring and reporting one or more of memory bus utilization, memory device utilization, and performance characteristics over defined intervals during system operation.

A high speed bidirectional data rate conversion circuit converts 1× data rate signals from attached devices on port A and port B to 2× data rate signals on bus C and further converts 2× high speed data rate signals on bus C to 1× data rate signals on ports A and B for memory devices attached to ports A and B. The usage of pass gate switches and combination of latches and counters is used to permit proper synchronization of the data signals, and to further generate strobe signals at both system bus and memory bus sides, and to further generate data mask signals for writing to the memory bus side of the circuit. The collection of such switching elements and latches are provided on a single silicon chip which includes of the functions of the invention.

A task synchronization mechanism operates on a global lock that is shared between processors an on local locks that are not shared between processors. The local locks are processor-specific locks. Each processor-specific lock is dedicated to a particular processor in the system. When shared access to a resource is required, a processor updates its processor-specific lock to indicate the processor is sharing the resource. Because each processor-specific lock is dedicated to a particular processor, this eliminates a significant portion of the memory bus traffic associated with all processors reading and updating the same lock. When exclusive access to a resource is required, the requesting processor waits until the count of all processor-specific locks indicate that none of these processors have a lock on the resource. Once no processor has a lock on the resource, exclusive access to the resource may be granted. By changing from a single lock to multiple processor-specific locks, significant performance benefits are achieved by eliminating the memory bus traffic associated with caching a single lock to multiple processors.

A memory module includes a memory device, a connector, a plurality of lines coupling the memory device and the connector, and termination circuitry coupled to at least a subset of the lines. A method for terminating a memory bus includes providing at least two expansion sockets coupled to the memory bus; interfacing two expansion memory modules including termination circuitry with the expansion sockets; and disabling the termination circuitry for one of the expansion memory modules.

A computer system comprises a memory controller and a synchronous non-volatile memory device coupled to the memory controller via a main memory bus. The synchronous non-volatile memory device has external interconnects arranged in a manner that corresponds to interconnects of a synchronous dynamic random access memory device. The synchronous flash memory device, however, comprises a reset connection, and a Vccp power supply connection correspond to first and second no-connect (NC) interconnect pins of the synchronous dynamic random access memory. In one embodiment, the synchronous non-volatile memory device has a command interface comprising a write enable connection (WE#) to receive a write enable signal, a column address strobe connection (CAS#) to receive a column address strobe signal, a row address strobe connection (RAS#) to receive a row address strobe signal, and a chip select connection (CS#) to receive a chip select signal.

A Flash memory card system is disclosed. The Flash memory card system comprises a Flash memory wireless host adapter and a Flash memory bus wireless device. The Flash memory wireless host adapter comprises a Flash memory card connector and a Flash memory controller coupled to the Flash memory card connector. The Flash-52 memory card signals are converted to standard Flash memory internal bus signals by the Flash memory controller. The host adapter further comprises a Flash memory wireless module coupled to the Flash memory controller for receiving and transmitting the standard Flash memory bus signals wirelessly. The Flash-51 memory bus wireless device comprises a Flash memory bus wireless device adapter coupled to a Flash memory. The device adapter is paired to the wireless module for receiving and transmitting the standard Flash memory bus signals wirelessly. A host device storage capacity utilizing the Flash memory card system is expanded.

A system for interfacing with a co-processor or input / output device is disclosed. According to one embodiment, the system includes a computer processing unit, a memory module, a memory bus that connects the computer processing unit and the memory module, and a co-processing unit or input / output device, wherein the memory bus also connects the co-processing unit or input / output device to the computer processing unit.

A system memory includes a memory hub controller, a memory module accessible by the memory hub controller, and an expansion module having a processor circuit coupled to the memory module and also having access to the memory module. The memory hub controller is coupled to the memory hub through a first portion of a memory bus on which the memory requests from the memory hub controller and memory responses from the memory hub are coupled. A second portion of the memory bus couples the memory hub to the processor circuit and is used to couple memory requests from the processor circuit and memory responses provided by the memory hub to the processor circuit.

A branching memory-bus module has one uplink port and two or more downlink ports. Frames sent downstream by a host processor are received on the uplink port and repeated to the multiple downlink ports to two or more branches of memory modules. Frames sent upstream to the processor by a memory module on a downlink port are repeated to the uplink port. A branching Advanced Memory Buffer (AMB) on the branching memory-bus module has re-timing and re-synchronizing buffers that repeat frames to the multiple downlink ports. Elastic buffers can merge and synchronize frames from different downlink branches. Separate northbound and southbound lanes may be replaced by bidirectional lanes to reduce pin counts. Latency from the host processor to the farthest memory module is reduced by branching compared with a serial daisy-chain of fully-buffered memory modules. Point-to-point bus segments have only two endpoints despite branching by the branching AMB.

Systems and methods for providing memory modules with multiple hub devices. Exemplary systems include a cascade-interconnect memory system with a memory bus, a memory controller and a memory module. The memory controller is in communication with the memory bus for generating, receiving and responding to memory access requests. The memory module includes a first hub device with three or more ports and a second hub device with three or more ports. A first port on the first hub device is in communication with the memory controller via the memory bus, a second port on the first hub device is in communication with a first set of memory devices, and a third port on the first hub device is cascade connected to a first port on the second hub device. A second port on the second hub device is in communication with a second set of memory devices and a third port on the second hub device supports a cascaded connection to a subsequent hub device in the memory system.

A memory interface to bridge a parallel memory bus and a serial memory bus. One embodiment includes a printed circuit board, comprising: at least one memory interface buffer chip to connect an advanced memory buffer (AMB) interface and one or more non-fully buffered memory modules.

A computer system adapted for hot-pluggable components such as memory modules that may be replaced, upgraded and / or added without disturbing normal operation of the computer system. A failing memory module may be replaced by copying its contents to a new memory module in a background operation while the computer system runs its operating system and applications programs. When all contents are copied to the new memory module, the failing memory module may be removed without having to shut down the computer system. Computer system memory may be upgraded or added to by inserting the new memory module(s) into vacant disconnected memory connectors, whereupon the computer system automatically recognizes the new memory module(s), synchronously connects the new memory module(s) to the computer system memory bus, initializes the new memory module(s), and then notifies the operating system that the new memory module(s) is available, all without disturbing normal operation of the computer system.