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:
Mar. 28, 2000
Filed:
Dec. 21, 1998
Applicant:
Inventors:
Jie Zheng, Mountain View, CA (US);
William Webster Kolb, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Hartmut Karl Habben, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Assignee:
Philips Electronics North America Corporation, New York, NY (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G11C / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
365221 ; 36518902 ; 36518905 ; 36523002 ; 365236 ;
Abstract
A FIFO unit for buffering serial communications includes a register and a unit for maintaining a single pointer. The single pointer functions as an IN pointer during writes and an OUT pointer during reads. The same circuitry maintains the pointer for both reads and writes to the FIFO. This circuitry preferably includes a single counter. If an error occurs during reading, the single pointer can be reinitialized and reading restarted, without loss of data. The register is not erased until reading is complete.