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:
Apr. 02, 2013
Filed:
Sep. 22, 2010
Timothy P. Allen, Santa Cruz, CA (US);
Andrew Draper, Chesham, GB;
Aaron Ferrucci, Santa Cruz, CA (US);
Kerry Veenstra, Santa Cruz, CA (US);
Timothy P. Allen, Santa Cruz, CA (US);
Andrew Draper, Chesham, GB;
Aaron Ferrucci, Santa Cruz, CA (US);
Kerry Veenstra, Santa Cruz, CA (US);
Altera Corporation, San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
According to various embodiments, a programmable device assembly includes an FPGA coupled to a nonvolatile serial configuration memory (e.g., serial flash memory) and a volatile fast bulk memory (e.g., SRAM or SDRAM). The nonvolatile serial configuration memory contains both the FPGA configuration data and CPU instructions. When a predetermined condition occurs, a serial memory access component that is hard coded on the FPGA automatically reads the configuration data from the nonvolatile serial configuration memory. The configuration data is used to configure the FPGA with various components, including a CPU, a boot ROM with code for a boot copier, and a bus structure. When the CPU boots, code for the boot copier is executed so that the CPU instructions are copied from the nonvolatile serial configuration memory to the volatile fast bulk memory. The CPU then executes the CPU instructions stored in the volatile fast bulk memory.