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:
Sep. 30, 2008
Filed:
Oct. 04, 2005
Tilman Gloekler, Gaertringen, DE;
Ingemar Holm, Stuttgart, DE;
Ralph C. Koester, Tuebingen, DE;
Mack W. Riley, Austin, TX (US);
Tilman Gloekler, Gaertringen, DE;
Ingemar Holm, Stuttgart, DE;
Ralph C. Koester, Tuebingen, DE;
Mack W. Riley, Austin, TX (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A converter apparatus and method are provided that transforms an external low speed industry standard interface into an on-chip high speed serial link (HSSL). The converter of the present invention is preferably placed in close vicinity of the external interface. The HSSL operates at the system clock speed and, as a result, the HSSL interface signals can be readily treated like any other timed signal facilitating the physical design process. Because synchronization is performed once in the converter near the external interface and the signals along the HSSL of the present invention may be treated like any other timed signal, the need for interface units in each processing element of the chip to perform synchronization is eliminated. Thus, the complexity and silicon area used by the present invention is reduced. The converter enables the maximum speed for the serial interface, which is crucial in power-on-reset, manufacturing testing, and chip debugging.