Did You Know...
...that Robert Adler has the dubious distinction of being the Father of the Couch Potato? Back in 1955 Adler was employed by what was then Zenith Radio Corp., where he was charged to invent something that would allow viewers to turn down the TV volume without leaving their chairs. After a series of flops (such as a wired contraption that people tripped over), Adler hit on the idea of using sound waves. Thus the Remote Control was born...
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 6311282 | Method and apparatus for computing device with status display A portable computing device (e.g. a notebook type computer) also includes communications features including a pager receiver and a radio frequency modem which are supported by allowing the device, under application program control, to resume operation fro... | 10/30/2001 |
| 6151655 | Computer system deadlock request resolution using timed pulses Disclosed is a hardware mechanism for detecting and avoiding potential deadlocks among requestors in a multiprocessor system, consisting of a plurality of CP's and I/O adapters connected to one or more shared storage controllers (SC's). Requests to each s... | 11/21/2000 |
| 6141717 | Microcomputer having bus isolation means for selectively coupling an external bus to either a memory bus or a peripheral bus for testing of memory and peripheral circuits A microcomputer for allowing a connector in a bus isolation mode to connection an external bus to either a memory bus or a peripheral bus as designated by an externally input mode signal. The microcomputer thus avoids assuming the load of both the memory ... | 10/31/2000 |
| 6134614 | Method for facilitating the replacement or insertion of devices in a computer system through the use of a graphical user interface A computer software method is disclosed for facilitating a user's replacement or insertion of devices in a computer server network system. The method allows a user to swap or add peripheral devices while the server network is running, or in a "hot" condit... | 10/17/2000 |
| 6134669 | Printer powered printer driver A Product Actuation Demonstration System (PADS) is powered from a product to which it is connected. The PADS includes a control module and an image storage module where the control module includes a local power generator which ensures that the power deliv... | 10/17/2000 |
| 6134615 | System for facilitating the replacement or insertion of devices in a computer system through the use of a graphical user interface A computer software system is disclosed for facilitating a user's replacement or insertion of devices in a computer server network system. The system allows a user to swap or add peripheral devices while the system is running, or in a "hot" condition, wit... | 10/17/2000 |
| 6119191 | Performing PCI access cycles through PCI bridge hub routing A method and implementing computer system is provided in which PCI CONFIG-- ADDRESS and CONFIG-- DATA conventions are maintained in a large computer system and each PCI Host Bridge (PHB) CONFIG-- ADDRESS register and each ... | 09/12/2000 |
| 6119192 | Circuit and method for configuring a bus bridge using parameters from a supplemental parameter memory A circuit and method are provided for initializing configuration registers in a bus bridge controller so that peripheral devices can acquire functionality prior to initialization by a normal system Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) routine. The initializat... | 09/12/2000 |
| 6115778 | Method and apparatus for handling interrupts through the use of a vector access signal A control system comprises an interrupt controller, having vector access signal output mechanism for outputting a vector access signal, which is activated when a start address is read out from a vector holder, and a central processing unit (CPU), comprisi... | 09/05/2000 |
| 6108726 | Reducing the pin count within a switching element through the use of a multiplexer The present invention comprises a system and method for reducing the pin count between a plurality of MAC and PHY devices within a switching element. In this embodiment, the switching element includes a plurality of general serial interfaces for providing... | 08/22/2000 |
| 6108739 | Method and system for avoiding starvation and deadlocks in a split-response interconnect of a computer system A system and method for avoiding starvation and deadlocks in a split-response-bus multiprocessor computer system. The multiprocessor computer system includes a first node and a second node coupled to the a split-response bus, wherein the first and second ... | 08/22/2000 |
| 6108740 | Method and apparatus for terminating a bus such that stub length requirements are met A method of preserving signal integrity of buses is disclosed. One step of the method includes the step of forming between a first bus and a first bus port of a bus controller, a first stub that is no greater than a first maximum stub length allowed for t... | 08/22/2000 |
| 6105143 | Power control device and method of controlling power of peripheral devices of a computer system using a universal serial bus (USB) hub A power control device of a computer system uses a universal serial bus (USB) hub for power control of a display monitor. The power control device includes: a rectifying section for converting an AC power of the display device into a DC voltage; a main SM... | 08/15/2000 |
| 6105141 | Method and apparatus for power management of an external cache of a computer system Power management techniques for external cache memories of computers are disclosed. The power management techniques operate to reduce power consumption of an external cache memory of a computer system by intelligently placing the external cache memory in ... | 08/15/2000 |
| 6105095 | Data packet routing scheduler and method for routing data packets on a common bus A data processing system (20) schedules the allocation of a common bus (26), used by multiple service requesters (32). The system (20) creates a plurality of service request levels (44) and assigns each service requester (32) to one of the plurality of re... | 08/15/2000 |
| 6101569 | Computer resources access control apparatus and method The present invention is directed to obtaining a correct processing result without an inexpedience such as a starvation by having a plurality of processes gain an access in parallel to a resource such as a VRAM. When one of a plurality of processing means... | 08/08/2000 |
| 6101565 | System for multisized bus coupling in a packet-switched computer system A data transfer control system for a computer system having a packet-switched data bus, for controlling the transfer of data words from a device having one bus width to a device having a different bus width. The first bus may be the master bus, and the se... | 08/08/2000 |
| 6101609 | Power consumption reduced register circuit The present invention provides a power consumption reduced register circuit which performs data processing in low power consuming and no wasteful manner. Reduction in power consumption of a synchronous circuit for accepting and outputting of data in synch... | 08/08/2000 |
| 6092208 | System and method for waking a computer having a plurality of power resources from a system state using a data structure Waking a computer from a system state. A wake data structure enables a device to wake the computer from a sleeping state. The lowest system state is identified that allows selected devices to still wake the system based on the contents of the wake data st... | 07/18/2000 |
| 6092134 | Method and apparatus for locking out a processor in a computer system with a bus that is improperly terminated A computer system includes a bus. A first connector is coupled to the bus. A first processor is coupled to the first connector. A second connector is coupled to the bus. A lock-out unit is coupled to the first and second connectors. The lock-out unit disa... | 07/18/2000 |
| 6092125 | Method and apparatus for transferring data from devices not supporting burst data transfers in burst mode A method and apparatus for transferring data between devices on a bus is described, the apparatus comprising a producer device having an output, and a first data management device having an input and a bus interface. An the output of the producer device i... | 07/18/2000 |
| 6088752 | Method and apparatus for exchanging information between buses in a portable computer and docking station through a bridge employing a serial link A docking system can give a portable computer access over a first bus in the portable computer to a second bus in a docking station. The first bus and the second bus are each adapted to separately connect to respective ones of a plurality of bus-compatibl... | 07/11/2000 |
| 6088748 | Personal computer system incorporating an isochronous multi-channel, multi-rate data bus An isochronous bus may includes a data signal, a data valid signal, a frame synch signal and a clock signal. The bandwidth of the data signal is partitioned into a plurality of frames. The frame rate may be selected based upon the sample rate of one of th... | 07/11/2000 |
| 6085332 | Reset design for redundant raid controllers A reset circuit implemented in a RAID controller configured for dual active operation. The reset circuit generates a reset pulse with a relatively invariant pulse width that is coupled to the controller's main CPU and I/O processors. The reset pulse can b... | 07/04/2000 |
| 6081861 | PCI migration support of ISA adapters A method and implementing system are provided which includes a PCI host bridge connected to a PCI bus. The PCI slots are applied to a switch array which is controlled by circuitry within the PCI host bridge in the example. The switch array is connected to... | 06/27/2000 |
| 6078981 | Transaction stall technique to prevent livelock in multiple-processor systems A livelock preventative measure is provided for agents in a multi-processor computing system. Livelock may occur when multiple agents each trade ownership of data in an attempt to modify it. When livelock occurs, a first agent posts a bus transaction for ... | 06/20/2000 |
| 6076132 | Arbitration method and circuit to increase access without increasing latency In accordance with this invention, an arbitration unit controls access to a shared device between a plurality devices. The arbitration unit grants access to the shared device so that both the maximum latency requirement and the minimum access requirement ... | 06/13/2000 |
| 6070247 | Method and apparatus for controlling power to a multi-media conferencing system using any one of a system power switch and a computer A multi-media conferencing system (10) that links desirable conferencing components into an adaptable and functional whole through innovative system approaches to system level controls. Another object of the present invention is to provide a multi-media c... | 05/30/2000 |
| 6070214 | Serially linked bus bridge for expanding access over a first bus to a second bus A bridge accessible by a host processor can expand access over a first bus to a second bus. The first bus and the second bus are each adapted to separately connect to respective ones of a plurality of bus-compatible devices. Allowable ones of the devices ... | 05/30/2000 |
| 6070211 | Driver/receiver circuitry for enhanced PCI bus with differential signaling A system of supporting differential signalling circuitry in an enhanced PCI bus within a data processing system is disclosed The enhanced PCI bus comprises a plurality of differential signal conductor pairs. A system and method in accordance with the pres... | 05/30/2000 |
| 6067591 | Method and apparatus for avoidance of invalid transactions in a bus host controller A method and apparatus for ensuring frame integrity in a bus system are disclosed. In the disclosed system, each scheduled transaction is evaluated before execution to determine whether there is enough time in the frame to complete the transaction. By sep... | 05/23/2000 |
| 6065123 | Computer system with unattended on-demand availability A computer system with unattended on-demand availability includes power-saving features which place the system into a Standby mode whenever the system is idle or is not being used. Prior to entering Standby mode, the system sets a hardware timer which ind... | 05/16/2000 |
| 6065088 | System and method for interrupt command queuing and ordering An input/output bus bridge and command queuing system includes an external interrupt router for receiving interrupt commands from bus unit controllers (BUCs) and responds with end of interrupt (EOI), interrupt return (INR) and interrupt reissue (IRR) comm... | 05/16/2000 |
| 6061757 | Handling interrupts by returning and requeuing currently executing interrupts for later resubmission when the currently executing interrupts are of lower priority than newly generated pending interrupts An information handling system includes one or more processing units, a data management unit, connected to the processor data bus, to a memory system, and to an I/O bus, an address management unit, connected to the processor address bus, to the memory sys... | 05/09/2000 |
| 6061752 | Technique for hot plugging a peripheral controller card containing PCI and SCSI buses on a single connector into a host system board An embodiment of the present invention discloses a technique that allows hot plugging a peripheral controller card, containing both a local bus and a peripheral bus on a single connector, into a host system board containing a host system bus and a host I/... | 05/09/2000 |
| 6055642 | Single chip clock control circuit operating independently of CPU control It is an object to prevent peak power consumption occurring on transition from normal mode to a small power consumption mode. A control-signal generating circuit (4) controls an oscillation circuit (2) and control circuits (3A) and (3B) to realize three t... | 04/25/2000 |
| 6044207 | Enhanced dual port I/O bus bridge An enhanced performance dual port I/O bus bridge to connect a first I/O bus of bandwidth B and a second like-type I/O bus of bandwidth B with a simultaneously bi-directional data path operating at a bandwidth of at least B and typically at a bandwidth of ... | 03/28/2000 |
| 6038620 | Method and system for optimal high speed match in a high performance controller which ensures an input/output interface stays ahead of a host interface A method and system in accordance with the present invention provides a mechanism that would dynamically change the backing factor. The backing factor is the amount of time needed to ensure that the I/O interface can stay ahead of the host interface. A me... | 03/14/2000 |
| 6035354 | Method for issuing transaction requests to a target device in accordance with the state of connection between a portable computer and the target device A computer system includes a portable computing unit releasably coupled to a docking unit to which a target device is also coupled. The portable computing unit includes a detector that detects whether the portable computing unit currently is coupled to th... | 03/07/2000 |
| 6032209 | Hot-swappable high speed point-to-point interface A hot-swappable, point-to-point connection between a high speed transmitter on a transmitter card and a high speed receiver on a receiver card is provided. The transmitter card and the receiver card can be inserted into a backplane, the backplane forming ... | 02/29/2000 |
