Rambus Inc.

Other

Tsyr-Chyang Ho

Kevin S Donnelly

Jared L Zerbe

Mark A Horowitz

Donald C Stark

Stefanos Sidiropoulos

Bruno Werner Garlepp

Jun Y Kim

Roxanne T Vu

Leung Yu

Benedict Chung-Kwong Lau

Thomas H Lee

Benedict C Lau

Mark G Johnson

Jason C Wei

Yiu-Fai Chan

Samir A Patel

Kevin S Donelly

Jared Levan Zerbe

Horowitz Mark A A

An integrated circuit device includes a transmitter circuit operable to transmit a timing signal over a first wire to a DRAM. The DRAM receives a first signal having a balanced number of logical zero-to-one transitions and one-to-zero transitions and samples the first signal at a rising edge of the timing signal to produce a respective sampled value. The device further includes a receiver circuit to receive the respective sampled value from the DRAM over a plurality of wires separate from the first wire. In a first mode, the transmitter circuit repeatedly transmits incrementally offset versions of the timing signal to the DRAM until sampled values received from the DRAM change from a logical zero to a logical one or vice versa; and in a second mode, it transmits write data over the plurality of wires to the DRAM according to a write timing offset generated based on the sampled values.

Flash memory controller with calibrated data communication

Memory controller that calibrates a transmit timing offset

Memory system with calibrated data communication

Memory controller with circuitry to set memory device-specific reference voltages

A system includes a first integrated circuit device and a second integrated circuit device. The first device transmits a data sequence to the second integrated circuit device, and the second device samples the data sequence to produce receiver data. The second device then transmits the receiver data back to the first device. Within the first integrated circuit device, a comparison between the data sequence and the receiver data is performed, and based on the comparison, the first device generates information representative of a calibrated timing offset. The first device uses the information representative of the calibrated timing offset to adjust timing associated with transferring write data from the first integrated circuit to the second integrated circuit.

Calibrated data communication system and method

An integrated circuit device includes a receiver, a register and a clock circuit. The receiver samples data from an external signal line in response to an internal clock signal. The register stores a value that represents a timing offset to adjust the time at which the data is sampled. The clock circuit generates the internal clock signal such that the internal clock signal maintains a controlled timing relationship with respect to an external clock signal. The clock circuit includes an interpolator that phase mixes a set of reference clock signals such that the internal clock signal is phase offset in accordance with the value.

Integrated circuit with timing adjustment mechanism and method

A bus system comprising a master connected to one or more slave devices via a bus is disclosed. The bus system is able to effectively communicate control information during a calibration phase and to individually determine appropriate timing and/or voltage offsets for each slave device. The offsets are used to optimize transfer timing (including duty cycle characteristics), signal equalization, and voltage levels for data exchanged between the master and the slave devices.

Bus system optimization

A phase detector is described that includes a load circuit that presents both a high differential impedance and a low common mode impedance. The load circuit is coupled to (1) a power supply and (2) a first node and a second node. The first and second nodes form an output of the phase detector. A capacitive circuit has (1) a first capacitor coupled to the first node and ground and (2) a second capacitor coupled to the second node and ground. A first circuit is coupled to the first and second nodes for detecting a phase difference between a first signal and a second signal. A second circuit is coupled to the first and second nodes for detecting the phase difference between the first and second signals and for minimizing phase detection error of the first circuit such that the phase difference between the first and second signals can be detected with minimized phase detection error. Each of the first and second circuits receives the first and second signals and a reference signal. The second circuit is cross-coupled to the first circuit such that an error current generated by the second circuit cancels that generated by the first circuit such that the phase detector detects the phase difference between the first and second signals with minimized phase detection error.

Phase detector with minimized phase detection error

An interface circuit providing a high speed bus. According to one embodiment, the interface circuitry includes a plurality of I/O pins coupled to a plurality of bus drivers, wherein each bus driver is configured to adjust the rise time, fall time, and drive strength of outputs signal on the I/O pins based on process-voltage-temperature ('PVT') conditions. The circuitry used to adjust the I/O outputs includes a slew rate control circuit, a current control circuit, and a delay lock loop ('DLL').

System for adjusting slew rate on an output of a drive circuit by

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Saratoga, CA, United States of America

Tsyr-Chyang Ho