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. 17, 2009
Filed:
Apr. 19, 2006
David Lewis, Toronto, CA;
Robert Blake, Saratoga, CA (US);
Richard G. Cliff, Los Altos, CA (US);
Srinivas T. Reddy, Fremont, CA (US);
David Lewis, Toronto, CA;
Robert Blake, Saratoga, CA (US);
Richard G. Cliff, Los Altos, CA (US);
Srinivas T. Reddy, Fremont, CA (US);
Altera Corporation, San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
A device reduces false positive memory error detections by using a masking unit and sensitivity mask data to exclude unused portions of the memory from the error detection computations. A device includes an error detection unit to read data from the memory and verify data integrity. The sensitivity mask data indicates unused portions of the memory. Unused portions of the memory may correspond with configuration data for unused portions of a programmable device. Each bit of the sensitivity mask data may indicate the usage of one or more bits of the data from the memory. In response to the mask data, the masking unit sets data from the unused portions of the memory to values that do not change the result of the error detection computations. This prevents any errors in data from the unused portions of the memory from raising an error signal.