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:
Oct. 06, 2009
Filed:
Nov. 11, 2005
James Fraser Testa, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Eyal Oren, Raanana, IL;
Earl T. Cohen, Oakland, CA (US);
Abstract
Token buckets are used in a computer or communications system for controlling rates at which corresponding items are processed. The number of tokens in a token bucket identifies the amount of processing that is available for the corresponding item. Instead of storing the value of a token bucket as a single value in a single memory location as traditionally done, the value of a token bucket is stored across multiple storage locations, such as in on-chip storage and in off-chip storage (e.g., in a memory device). An indication (e.g., one or more bits) can also be stored on chip to identify whether or not the off-chip stored value is zero and/or of at least of a certain magnitude such that it may be readily determined whether there are sufficient tokens to process an item without accessing the off-chip storage.