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:
Dec. 02, 2003
Filed:
Jun. 05, 2001
Daming Jin, Irvine, CA (US);
Timothy C. Fischer, Berthoud, CO (US);
Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P., Houston, TX (US);
Abstract
A computer hardware system is disclosed for determining during a single clock cycle whether a data buffer having a plurality of entries can accept additional data. The system has multiple stages, having one or more adders/encoders that process the data buffer entries' valid bits in parallel. Groups of entries are associated with first-stage adders/encoders. Valid bits and their complements for entries in each group are received into multiple first-stage adders that compute and output encoded values indicating the number of available entries within each group, or first-stage totals. The adders also encode the first-stage totals such that a saturated count corresponds to a pre-charged state of the first-stage adder. The first-stage totals are then sent to additional stages having adders/encoders that are substantially the same as the first-stage adders/encoders. The additional-stage adders combine the encoded totals from prior stages and determine whether the buffer has available entries.