Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Other

Scott J Griffith

Chris Lee Nelson

Robert G Grubb

Roy Rard

Steven E Golson

Robert McDonough

Robert Peerson

William Smith

An improved canoe including a hull has sidewalls extending fore and aft and a gunwale on the sidewalls. The gunwale has longitudinal slot extending for a substantial portion of the entire hull. A canoe accessory has a thickened attachment portion for engagement in the slot to attach the accessory to the canoe. A method of canoeing includes inserting a thickened portion of a canoeing accessory into a slot at a canoe gunwale to retain the accessory in place and paddling the canoe on a body of water.

Canoe gunwale

A circuit for detecting manufacturing deficiencies in semi-conductor devices and selecting marketable chips comprises a speed circuit to determine the speed at which a particular chip operates. The speed circuit is a small, self-contained circuit that may be placed on any type of semi-conductor chip. It includes an oscillator, a counter, and a control logic circuit. The speed circuit is coupled to an external clock and a control processor. The external clock provides a benchmark against which the operation of the chip can be compared. The control processor uses the output of the speed circuit to compute the speed at which the semi-conductor device operates.

Method and apparatus for measuring the speed of an integrated circuit

A multi-input logic gate is disclosed having particular application for use as an AND or OR gate in a digital circuit. The OR gate of the present invention includes drive, sense and reference rails. A plurality of input lines are coupled to a gate of a plurality of N-channel transfers disposed between the drive and sense rails, one input line per transistor. The drive rail is coupled to ground through an N-channel transistor whose gate is controlled by the state of a detect line. The sense and reference rails are coupled to a voltage source (V.sub.dd) through P-channel transistors whose gate is also coupled to the detect line. The P-channel transistor coupled to the sense rail is sized to pass more current than the corresponding transfer on the reference rail. A sense amplifier is coupled to the sense and reference rails, and outputs a predetermined signal as a function of the voltage difference of the rails. In operation, a precharge circuit first precharges the drive, sense and reference rails to a known voltage. Signals are then applied to the inputs and allowed to stabilize. A detect signal is generated which turns on the P-channel transistors coupled to the sense and reference rails, and the N-channel transistor coupled between the drive rail and ground. In the event all inputs are low, the sense rail voltage rises faster than that of the reference rail, this voltage difference is sensed by the sense amplifier which outputs a predetermined signal indicating no inputs are high. In the event that one or more inputs are high, the corresponding N-channel transfer coupled between the drive rail and the sense rail is turned on, thereby pulling the sense rail toward ground. The sense amplifier senses that the reference rail voltage exceeds that of the sense rail outputs a signal indicating that at least one input is high. The present invention further includes an improved AND gate which permits an efficient determination of whether all of a multiplicity of inputs are true.

Triple rail logic gate

Growing community of inventors

Waltham, MA, United States of America

Scott J Griffith