Reexamination Certificate
1997-04-04
2001-01-30
Meky, Moustafa M. (Department: 2757)
Reexamination Certificate
active
06179489
ABSTRACT:
NOTICE
(C) Copyright, *M* Texas Instruments Incorporated 1997. A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright and mask work protection. The copyright and mask work owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright and mask work rights whatsoever.
Digital signal processors can be adapted for voice recognition, voice synthesis, image processing, image recognition, and telephone communications for teleconferencing and videoteleconferencing. For example, Texas Instruments TMS320C2x, TMS320C5x, TMS320C54x, TMS320C3x and TMS320C4x, TMS320C6x and TMS320C8x DSP chips, as described in coassigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,072,418, and 5,099,417, and as to the C8x: coassigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,212,777 “SIMD/MIMD Reconfigurable Multi-Processor and Method of Operation,” coassigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,420,809, Ser. No. 08/160,116 filed Nov. 30, 1993 “Method, Apparatus and System Method for Correlation,”,now U.S. Pat. No. 5,420,809 and above-cited Ser. No. 09/012,813 still pending all of which patents and application are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
The above documents describe various computer systems, digital signal processors, and integrated circuits for use in those systems to further disclose some elements utilized in various inventive embodiments for purposes of the present patent application.
Other patent applications and patents are incorporated herein by reference by specific statements to that effect elsewhere in this application.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention generally relates to improved integrated circuits, computer systems, software products, and processes of operating integrated circuits and computers.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Early computers required large amounts of space, occupying whole rooms. Since then minicomputers and desktop computers entered the marketplace.
Popular desktop computers have included the “Apple” (Motorola 680x0 microprocessor-based) and “IBM-compatible” (Intel or other x86 microprocessor-based) varieties, also known as personal computers (PCs) which have become very popular for office and home use. Also, high-end desk top computers called workstations based on a number of superscalar and other very-high-performance microprocessors such as the SuperSPARC microprocessor have been introduced.
In a further development, a notebook-size or palm-top computer is optionally battery powered for portable user applications. Such notebook and smaller computers challenge the art in demands for conflicting goals of miniaturization, ever higher speed, performance and flexibility, and long life between battery recharges. Also, a desktop enclosure called a docking station has the portable computer fit into the docking station, and improvements in such portable-computer/docking-station systems are desirable. However, all these systems are generally CPU-centric in the sense that the selection of the CPU determines the system's processing capabilities and add-in-cards are added to the CPU to add specific applications or functions, such as modem or multimedia.
Software for computers and the processes and concepts for Developing and understanding both hardware and software have spawned an intricate terminology. For an introduction, see references hereby incorporated herein by reference, and listed below:
1. The Computer Glossary, by A. Freedman, AMACOM, American Management Association, New York, in various editions up to 1991 and later.
2. Modern Operating Systems, by A.S. Tanenbaum, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J. 1992.
3. Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) Bus Specification 2.0, 1993, by PCISIG (Special Interest Group), and its updates.
4. PCI System Architecture, by T. Shanley, Mindshare Press.
5. Microsoft Corporation: publications:
A. DirectSound Hardware Abstraction Layer
B. DirectSound Application Programming Interface (API)
C. Microsoft Windows: Guide to Programming, Software Development Kit.
6. Texas Instruments Incorporated: publications
A. TMS320C5x User's Guide, 1993.
B. TCM320ACXX Voice Band Audio Processor-Application Report
Hitherto, modem, voice, stereo audio, and other interfaces have often been implemented on respective add-in cards with respective software drivers and respective slave bus interfaces. Such system architecture has burdened OEM and business and consuming public with space requirements and financial expense. CPU MIPS are expended on the numerous slave transactions as well.
Improvements in circuits, integrated circuit devices, computer systems of all types, methods and processes of their operation, and software products, to address all the above-mentioned challenges, among others, are desirable, as described herein.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Generally, and in one form of the present invention, a process is provided for operating a computer system having a storage holding an operating system and an application program and a third program, a first processor having an instruction set, and a second processor having a different instruction set. The process includes a first step of running the first processor to determine whether a part of the application shall be run on the first processor or the second processor and then establishing a second processor object if said part shall be run on the second processor and the first processor sending a message that the second processor is to run said at least part of the application program. The third program establishes message handling functions and bus masters data transfer operations for the second processor between the host running the operating system and the second processor running the third program. The process concurrently runs the second processor to perform operations defined by the third program, including to access memory to detect the message that the second processor is to run said at least part of the application program, and runs the second processor to access the second processor object and thereby determine operations for the second processor to access second processor instructions for said part of the application program and data to be processed according to said second processor instructions. Further, the process runs the second processor to process data according to said at least part of the application program and supplying data thus processed by bus mastering operations defined by the third program.
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Kerr Jeffrey L.
Magee Steven R.
So John Ling Wing
Tang Jun
Brady III W. James
Marshall, Jr. Robert D.
Meky Moustafa M.
Telecky , Jr. Frederick J.
Texas Instruments Incorporated
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