Texas Instruments Corporation

Richard T Tarrant

Rex Alan Naden

David M Lee

An apparatus (10) for intelligent programmable sensing using elements mounted on a silicon base comprise a silicon sensor transducer (12) and a configurable analog signal conditioner (16). A configurable memory (18) is part of signal conditioner (16) and stores conditioning instructions to direct configurable analog signal conditioner operations. A configurable memory (24) is part of configurable analog-to-digital converter (24) and stores converting instruction to direct configurable analog-to-digital converter operation. Digital signal processor (28) processes digitized signals (26) from configurable analog-to-digital converter (24). A program memory (30) stores program instructions for processor (28) to generate results (32). Configuration and results bus (34) directs communications within the sensor (10) and through communications interface (36). Communications interface (36) interfaces to system communications bus (38) to interconnect other intelligent programmable sensors (40,42) and supervisor monitor/control computer (44) which process results/reconfiguration memories (18,24,30).

Intelligent programmable sensing

A magnetic memory system is provided that includes magnetic domain data chips having a block replicate organization wherein the system may include data chips having one or more defective minor loops. A dedicated minor loop is provided on the chip to store a redundancy map for locating the defective minor loops. The dedicated minor loop also provides for storing a synchronization pattern for initializing the system by having each minor loop properly addressed for transferring magnetic domains. The dedicated loop can only be accessed by a separate swap pin preventing a write operation by the user thus preserving the data stored therein.

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Richardson, TX, United States of America

Richard T Tarrant