摘要:
A connector on a printed circuit board of a computer system is reused to reduce a number of connectors utilized on a motherboard of a computer system. By recognizing that some signals are common between a programming application performed during a manufacturing process and a second application performed while the computer system is a normal customer operation, the connector may be used to provide data values during both the manufacturing process and normal customer operation. Stated another way, data signals used to drive programmed data during the manufacturing process may be re-used to provide serial data to an input/output device during normal customer operation.
摘要:
A bus termination impedance verification circuit. The verification circuit includes a sense circuit comprised of a sense input node and a sense output node. A sense node of the sense circuit is connected to a signal conductor of a bus to detect the termination impedance of the bus. The voltage of the sense output node is indicative of the termination impedance of the bus when the sense circuit input node is activated. The comparator circuit includes a comparator input node and a comparator output node. The comparator input node is connected to the sense circuit output node. The comparator circuit is configured such that the comparator output node is indicative of whether the voltage of the comparator input node is within a specified voltage range. The voltage of the signal conductor, as detected by the sense circuit, will be a function of the impedance of the termination circuits connected to the bus. An excess or shortage of termination circuits connected to the bus will result in a detected control signal voltage that is not within the specified limits.
摘要:
A computer system includes a memory subsystem which has DIMM slots capable of receiving both DRAM and SDRAM memory module devices. A memory device detection methodology detects the presence of installed memory modules in the memory module slots, and signal levels on predetermined pins of the installed memory modules are processed to identify the specific type of memory module installed. The mode of an associated memory controller is set according to the type of module detected to be present, and the characteristics for the memory module are read.
摘要:
A method and apparatus for providing a memory system having error checking and correction (ECC) capability, and parity error detection capability on the same memory card, and user selection of either capability using the same type of memory modules. A memory controller having programmable configuration registers is provide for user selection of either ECC or parity capability. Eight-byte Dual in-line Memory Modules are used to provide 64-bit data which allows the memory controller to use eight extra bits for both ECC and parity capability.
摘要:
A method and apparatus for driving a battery-backed up clock while a computer system is powered-down. The present invention uses an auxiliary power supply, VAUX, to power a microprocessor bus oscillator. The microprocessor bus oscillator is typically a high frequency, highly accurate oscillator. The microprocessor bus oscillator continues to run while the computer system is powered down, but is connected to a wall outlet. Thus, it can be used to synthesize an accurate time base to drive a battery-backed up clock input. A microcontroller, PAL, or other such circuit can be used to convert the high frequency signal from the microprocessor bus oscillator to a frequency suitable for the battery-backed up clock. Thus, a single oscillator is used to keep time for normal operations. Only when the system is moved, or when main power fails, is a battery backed-up crystal oscillator used to keep time. This minimizes the occurrence of timing errors, due to the system being turned off and back on.
摘要:
A method and apparatus for speculatively executing a single threaded program within a multi-core processor which includes identifying an idle core within the multi-core processor, performing a look ahead operation on the single thread instructions to identify speculative instructions within the single thread instructions, and allocating the idle core to execute the speculative instructions.
摘要:
Secure communication of data between devices includes encrypting unencrypted data at a first device by reordering unencrypted bits provided in parallel on a device bus, including data and control bits, from an unencrypted order to form encrypted data including a plurality of encrypted bits in parallel in an encrypted order defined by a key. The encrypted data may be transmitted to another device where the encrypted data is decrypted by using the key to order the encrypted bits to restore the unencrypted order thereby to reform the unencrypted data.
摘要:
A computer implemented method, data processing system, and computer usable code are provided for burn-in testing of a multiprocessor. A process identifies a power management data set for a plurality of processor cores associated with the multiprocessor. The process selects one or more of the plurality of processor cores to form a selected set of processor cores based upon the power management data set. The process initiates a burn-in test across the selected set of processor cores. In response to a determination that all processor cores in the plurality of processor cores have not been selected, the process repeats the above selecting and initiating steps until all the processor cores have been selected.
摘要:
A system and method to optimize multi-core microprocessor performance using voltage offsets is presented. A multi-core device tests each of its processor cores in order to identify each processor core's optimum supply voltage. In turn, the device configures voltage offset networks for each processor core based upon each processor core's identified optimum supply voltage. As a result, the offset voltages produced by the voltage offset networks are subtracted from the multi-core device's main voltage, which results in the voltage offset networks supplying optimum supply voltages to each processor core. The voltage offset networks may include fuses to generate a fixed voltage offset, or the voltage offset networks may include a control circuit to dynamically adjust voltage offsets during the multi-core device's operation.
摘要:
The disclosed methodology and apparatus may reduce heat generation in a multi-core processor. In one embodiment, a multi-core processor cycles selected processor cores off in a predetermined pattern across the processor die over time to reduce the average heat generation by the processor. The disclosed multi-core processor may reduce or avoid undesirable hot spots that impact processor life.