On July 1, 2008, Apple was granted six patents by the US Patent & Trademark Office. The patents cover such technologies as a macroscalar processor architecture, a low EMI capacitive trackpad and an IBM invention assigned to Apple for a circuit board cam-action standoff connector. Additionally, Apple was granted several design patents pertaining to their notebooks and iPod Classic MP3 player.

Patent: Macroscalar Processor Architecture

Apple’s first granted patent of the day generally relates to a processor. More particularly, this invention relates to macroscalar processor architecture.

Apple’s Background: As clock frequencies continue to rise in response to increased demands for performance, power has also increased, while deeper pipelines have exhibited a diminishing effect on the number of instructions per cycle (IPC) achieved in real-world situations, which further contributes to the power dissipation problem through inefficiency. A variety of mechanisms have emerged over the years that attempt to salvage instruction-level parallelism (ILP), such as SMT (simultaneous multi-threading) and VLIW (very long instruction word) and out-of-order execution, some with more success than others.

The classic compile-time optimization that permits more effective utilization of longer pipelines is loop-unrolling. Unfortunately, most processors lack the requisite number of program registers to permit enough unrolling to fully saturate deeper pipelines. Increasing the number of registers without compromising software compatibility is problematic as well. Furthermore, many types of loops simply cannot be unrolled, such as those that implement data-dependent control-flow, which is the same class of loop hit hardest by deeper pipelines.

Autovectorization is another compiler optimization that is beginning to break into the mainstream. For loops that can be autovectorized, the promise of performance is even greater than for loop unrolling. However, loops that can be autovectorized are only a small subset of loops that can be unrolled, which is a small subset of all loops in general. While regularly structured numerical algorithms sometimes may benefit from auto-vectorization, none of this really helps data-driven algorithms.
While consumers purchase newer and faster processors with deeper pipelines, the vast majority of software available is still targeted for processors with shorter pipelines. As a result, of this, the consumer may not realize the full processing potential of a new processor for one to two years after its release, and only after making additional investments to obtain updated software. Since the limited number of program registers restricts loop unrolling, it is questionable how efficiently deeper pipelines will actually be utilized.

Apple’s Summary: A macroscalar processor architecture is described herein. In one embodiment, an exemplary processor includes one or more execution units to execute instructions and one or more iteration units coupled to the execution units. The one or more iteration units receive one or more primary instructions of a program loop generated by a compiler. For each of the primary instructions received, at least one of the iteration units generates multiple secondary instructions that correspond to one or more program loop iterations of the task of the respective primary instruction.

Apple’s patent FIG. 29 noted above, is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system for handling context switch according to one embodiment of the invention.

Patents: MacBook and MacBook Pro

Apple’s second and third granted patents of the day generally relate to their MacBook designs. The MacBook (left) and MacBook Pro (right) notebook designs noted below were originally filed for in October 2007.

Apple lists CEO Steve Jobs and the following engineers as the inventors of both of these new MacBook designs: Bartley K. Andre (Menlo Park, CA), Daniel J. Coster (San Francisco, CA), Daniele De Iuliis (San Francisco, CA), Richard P. Howarth (San Francisco, CA), Jonathan P. Ive (San Francisco, CA), Duncan Robert Kerr (San Francisco, CA), Shin Nishibori (San Francisco, CA), Matthew Dean Rohrbach (San Francisco, CA), Douglas B. Satzger (Menlo Park, CA), Calvin Q. Seid (Palo Alto, CA), Christopher J. Stringer (Woodside, CA), Eugene Antony Whang (San Francisco, CA) and Rico Zorkendorfer (San Francisco, CA).

Patent: iPod Classic

Apple’s fourth granted patent of the day generally relates to their iPod Classic design which was originally filed for in August 2007.

Apple lists CEO Steve Jobs and the following engineers as the inventors of both of these new MacBook designs: Bartley K. Andre (Menlo Park, CA), Daniel J. Coster (San Francisco, CA), Daniele De Iuliis (San Francisco, CA), Richard P. Howarth (San Francisco, CA), Jonathan P. Ive (San Francisco, CA), Duncan Robert Kerr (San Francisco, CA), Shin Nishibori (San Francisco, CA), Matthew Dean Rohrbach (San Francisco, CA), Douglas B. Satzger (Menlo Park, CA), Calvin Q. Seid (Palo Alto, CA), Christopher J. Stringer (Woodside, CA), Eugene Antony Whang (San Francisco, CA) and Rico Zorkendorfer (San Francisco, CA).

Patent: Low EMI Capacitive Trackpad

Apple’s fifth granted patent of the day generally relates to computer system input devices and, more particularly, to a trackpad input device having low electromagnetic interference characteristics.

Apple’s Background: A trackpad is a touch-sensing planar digitizer input device used instead of, or in conjunction with, a mouse, trackball or joy stick. During use, an operator places a finger on the trackpad and moves the finger along the touch-sensing planar surface. The trackpad detects the movement of the finger and in response provides motion signals to a computer. Typically, a trackpad software program converts the detected movement pattern into specific cursor control signals (e.g., location, direction and magnitude of motion).
There are two common types of trackpad sensor devices: resistive and capacitive. A resistive trackpad sensor is a mechanical sensor that uses two layers of material that are typically separated by air. Pressure from a finger pushes the top layer (generally a thin, clear polyester film) so that it touches the bottom layer (generally glass). The voltage at the contact point is measured and the finger’s location is computed and transmitted to a host computer system. After the finger is removed, the top layer “bounces back” to its original configuration. A capacitive touchpad sensor, in contrast, is a solid-state sensor made using printed circuit board (”PCB”), flex circuit of glass substrate technology. A finger on, or in close proximity to, a top grid of conductive traces – changes the capacitive coupling between adjacent traces. This change in capacitance can be measured and finger position computed.

Like virtually all electronic circuits, the computer system (e.g., notebook or other personal computer, workstation or server computer) in which a trackpad (i.e., a trackpad sensor and its associated electronics) resides generates electromagnetic interference (”EMI”). It will be recognized that such interference can cause damage or a malfunction in other computer system devices or circuits. In the past, the problem of computer EMI has generally been addressed by enclosing the computing environment (e.g., the computer system’s motherboard) in a shielded volume (typically referred to as a Faraday cage) and placing the trackpad outside this volume. Often, because the trackpad must be electrically coupled to the computer system, the trackpad itself is partially enclosed in a second shielded container.

Apple patent introduces a touchpad sensor with low EMI characteristics without introducing large unwanted capacitances or the need to employ additional design techniques to offset the side-effects of the reduced EMI design.

Apple lists Benjamin Lyon (San Jose, CA) and Steven P. Hotelling (San Jose, CA) as the inventors of this patent.

Patent: Circuit Board Cam-Action Standoff Connector

Apple’s sixth and last patent of the day generally relates to circuit board connectors, and more particularly, to a cam-action expandable standoff connector for mounting a circuit board .IBM and their respective engineers are noted as the inventors of this patent for which Apple is noted as the assignee.
Apple’s Abstract: A cam-action expanding standoff connector and related method are disclosed for mounting a circuit board. The standoff connector includes a body and a plurality of mounting members having interior longitudinally-extending camming portions for engagement by a cam. A cam is configured to be positioned within the mounting members in a first position in which the mounting members are not expanded against the interior of a mounting opening and in a second position in which the cam engages the camming portions to expand the plurality of mounting members against the interior of the mounting opening. Since the camming action is horizontal only (purely radial), practically no vertical forces are applied to the circuit board and a best-fit alignment between a circuit board and heatsink can be established and maintained.

Apple’s granted patent FIG. 8 shows a perspective view of the connector

NOTICE: MacNN presents only a brief summary of patents with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or grant is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent applications and/or grants should be read in its entirety for further details.

Written and researched by Neo.