Abstract:
A processing module with multilevel cache architecture, including: a processor; a level-one (L1) cache, coupled to the processor, for caching data for the processor, wherein the L1 cache has at least one L1 cacheable range; a level-two (L2) cache, coupled to the L1 cache, for caching data for the processor, wherein the L2 cache has at least one L2 cacheable range, and the L1 cacheable range and the L2 cacheable range are mutually exclusive; and a memory interface, coupled to the L1 cache and the L2 cache, for transferring data between the L1 cache and a memory and for transferring data between the L2 cache and the memory.
Abstract:
In a method for fetching instructions in an embedded system, a predicted one of a set of the instructions stored in a memory device is fetched and is subsequently stored in an instruction buffer when a system bus is in a data access phase. When a processor generates an access request for the memory device, the predicted one of the instructions stored in the instruction buffer is provided to the system bus for receipt by the processor upon determining that the predicted one of the instructions stored in the instruction buffer hits the access request from the processor. An embedded system with an instruction prefetching device is also disclosed.
Abstract:
A semiconductor package with a heat sink is provided in which at least one chip is mounted on the substrate and covered by a heat sink. The heat sink is formed with a plurality of grooves or holes at positions in contact with the substrate, allowing an adhesive material to be applied between the heat sink and the substrate and filled into the grooves or holes for attaching the heat sink onto the substrate. The adhesive material filled into the grooves or holes provides an anchoring effect for firmly positioning the heat sink on the substrate. Therefore, it is not necessary to form predetermined holes on the substrate for being coupled to fixing members such as bolts, and incorporation of the heat sink would not affect trace routability and arrangement of input/output connections such as solder balls on the substrate and would not lead to cracks of the chip.
Abstract:
A chip carrier for a semiconductor chip is provided. A plurality of solder pads for bump soldering are formed on a chip mounting surface of the chip carrier, to allow a flip chip to be mounted and electrically connected to the chip carrier. A solder mask layer is formed on the chip carrier, wherein a plurality of openings are provided in the solder mask layer to expose the solder pads, and an outwardly opening extended portion is formed respectively from the openings corresponding to the solder pads having a relatively narrower pitch therebetween, so as to prevent formation of voids during an underfill process for filing a gap between the flip chip and the chip carrier.
Abstract:
A method and apparatus for transmitting registered data onto a PCI bus is provided, which can reduce the delay time of manipulating the outgoing signals without greatly increasing the circuit complexity. The apparatus employee a 2R1W data buffer to send a current phase data and a next phase data one clock cycle ahead of the actual AD activity on PCI bus and use a multiplexer to select the current phase data or the next phase data according to a select signal. The select signal is outputted by a OR gate with IRDY# and TRDY# signals as its inputs. Then, the apparatus use a flip-flop to toggling the output signal of the multiplexer to the PCI bus at the actual AD activity. Therefore, the apparatus of the present invention not only reduce the delay time of manipulating the outgoing signals, but also is implemented with simple architecture.