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. 17, 2004
Filed:
Mar. 19, 2001
William S. Coates, Los Altos, CA (US);
Mark R. Greenstreet, Vancouver, CA;
Sun Microsystems, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for data flow control. One embodiment detects input congestion and output starvation in a plurality of sub-buffers of a ripple FIFO buffer. This embodiment is used to draw conclusions about the occupancy of the ripple FIFO buffer under steady-state conditions. One embodiment detects input congestion and output starvation at every sub-buffer of the ripple FIFO buffer. Other embodiments detect input congestion and output starvation at a subset of the sub-buffers of the ripple FIFO buffer. One embodiment determines occupancy of the ripple FIFO buffer by the number of sub-buffers which report a steady congested state. Another embodiment determines occupancy of the ripple FIFO buffer by the number of sub-buffers which report a steady starved state. Another embodiment determines occupancy of the ripple FIFO buffer by the location of sub-buffers which report a steady congested state. Another embodiment determines occupancy of the ripple FIFO buffer by the location of sub-buffers which report a steady starved state. Other embodiments determine occupancy of the ripple FIFO buffer by a combination of the above methods.