The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 10, 1998
Filed:
Sep. 18, 1996
Marc Blumer, Half Moon Bay, CA (US);
Wayne Ando, San Jose, CA (US);
Electronics for Imaging, San Mateo, CA (US);
Abstract
A programmable DMA controller that uses an instruction set dedicated to moving data efficiently over a bus, comprising a program memory, a program counter, a FIFO memory, a bus buffer, registers, an accumulator, and an ALU. The DMA controller instruction set comprises the following instructions: load, move, add, subtract, branch on zero, branch on not zero, lock, and interrupt. Another DMA controller embodiment uses a SIMD processor. In operation, a CPU downloads DMA programs to the DMA controller. The DMA controller stores these programs in its program memory. The CPU signals the DMA to begin a DMA transfer operation. The ALU and associated devices execute the program instructions to perform the desired DMA transfer. The DMA controller then sends an interrupt to the CPU to indicate the DMA transfer is complete.