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:
Nov. 25, 2008
Filed:
Jun. 05, 2006
James E. Innis, Cedar Park, TX (US);
Iftekhar Ahmed, Mawson Lakes, AU;
Matthew Joseph Taylor, Blair Athol, AU;
David W. Todd, Austin, TX (US);
James E. Innis, Cedar Park, TX (US);
Iftekhar Ahmed, Mawson Lakes, AU;
Matthew Joseph Taylor, Blair Athol, AU;
David W. Todd, Austin, TX (US);
Freescale Semiconductor, Inc., Austin, TX (US);
Abstract
A device for controlling data communication flow to a data buffer of an integrated circuit is disclosed. The device receives data communicated from a transmitting device. The received data is placed in a data buffer in memory. The data buffer is defined by a set of buffer descriptors, whereby a number of free buffer descriptors in the set of buffer descriptors is indicative of the amount of free space in the data buffer. A communications controller determines whether the data buffer is subject to overflowing by determining when the number of free buffer descriptors moves below a threshold level (a watermark). The communications controller sends a request to the transmitting device to stop transmitting data in response to determining that the data buffer is possibly subject to an overflow condition, indicating that the data buffer is nearly full.