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:
Feb. 02, 1999
Filed:
Oct. 24, 1996
Louis Bennie Capps, Jr, Round Rock, TX (US);
Richard Nicholas Iachetta, Jr, Pflugerville, TX (US);
An Xuan Tra, Round Rock, TX (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for receiving and transmitting programming data through an application specific integrated circuit is provided. In a first embodiment, the application specific integrated circuit comprises a main circuit, at least two input/output (I/O) mechanisms connected to the main circuit for transferring data into and out of the main circuit and a mechanism for receiving and transmitting the programming data. The mechanism for transmitting the programming data includes a tri-state buffer that is activated by a programming enable signal. In a second embodiment, the input and output of the buffer are multiplexed with the two I/O mechanisms connected to the main circuit.