Methods and apparatuses for processing multiple communications signals with a single integrated circuit chip

• US 10,075,392 B1
• Filed: 03/02/2017
• Issued: 09/11/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
• Inventors: Chritz, Jeremy, Schmitz, Tamara, Watson, John L., Schroeter, John, Luo, Fa-Long, Cummins, Jaime
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, David Q
• Application Number:
  US15/447,867
• Publication Number:
  US 20180255001A1
• Time in Patent Office: 558 Days
• Field of Search: 455 414, 455 78, 340506, 340 101
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/77 for interrogation
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/04 using two or more spaced independent antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/109 Integrated on microchip, e.g. switch-on-chip
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/25 Routing or path finding in a switch fabric
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/355 Application aware switches, e.g. for HTTP
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/06 based on characteristics of available antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/042 Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

An apparatus is disclosed. The apparatus comprises a plurality of antennas and an integrated circuit chip coupled to the plurality of antennas, and is configured to process cellular signals received from the plurality of antennas in accordance with a cellular communication protocol and to process radio frequency identification (RFID) signals received from the plurality of antennas in accordance with an RFID protocol.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a plurality of antennas; and

an integrated circuit chip coupled to the plurality of antennas, and configured to process cellular signals received from the plurality of antennas in accordance with a cellular communication protocol and to process radio frequency identification (RFID) signals received from the plurality of antennas in accordance with an RFID protocol;

wherein the integrated circuit chip comprises;

a first cluster of processing elements configured to process the cellular signals to be transmitted to another apparatus;

a second cluster of processing elements configured to process the RFID signals; and

a plurality of switches configured to route processed data from the first cluster of processing elements to the second cluster of processing elements, from the second cluster of processing elements to the first cluster of processing elements, or both,

wherein a first switch of the plurality of switches is configured to route a portion of the processed data from a portion of processing elements of the first cluster of processing elements to the second cluster of processing elements, wherein a second switch of the plurality of switches is configured to route an additional portion of the processed data from an additional portion of the processing elements of the first cluster of processing elements to the second cluster of processing elements, and wherein a number of the processing elements of the first cluster is dynamically configurable to include the additional portion of the processing elements from the second cluster of the processing elements based on an increased processing load at the first cluster of processing elements.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein one or more first antennas of the plurality of antennas are configured to receive the cellular signals.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein one or more second antennas of the plurality of antennas are configured to receive the RFID signals.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the integrated circuit chip is configured to process the cellular signals and the RFID signals at least partially simultaneously.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the integrated circuit chip further comprises a network on chip.

6. An apparatus comprising:

a plurality of antennas;

an integrated circuit chip coupled to the plurality of antennas, the integrated circuit chip comprising;

a first cluster of processing elements comprising;

a first plurality of processing elements configured to process RFID information received with the plurality of antennas; and

a second plurality of processing elements configured to process the RFID information; and

a second cluster of processing elements comprising;

a third plurality of processing elements configured to process cellular data received with the plurality of antennas; and

a plurality of switches configured to route processed data from the first cluster of processing elements to the second cluster of processing elements, from the second cluster of processing elements to the first cluster of processing elements, or both,

wherein a number of the second cluster of processing elements are dynamically configurable to include a portion of the second plurality of processing elements based on a processing load increase to an amount of the cellular data received with the plurality of antennas, and wherein the second cluster of processing elements further comprises the portion of the second plurality of processing elements based on the number of the second cluster of processing elements dynamically configurable to include the portion of the second plurality of processing elements.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the integrated circuit chip further comprises an RFID interface configured to couple the plurality of antennas to the first cluster of processing elements.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the integrated circuit chip further comprises a cellular interface configured to couple the plurality of antennas to the second cluster of processing elements.

9. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the integrated circuit chip further comprises a plurality of switches configured to communicate data among the first cluster of processing elements and the second cluster of processing elements.

10. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the integrated circuit chip further comprises a respective data memory coupled to each processing element of the first, second, and third pluralities of processing elements, and wherein the respective data memories of the first cluster of processing elements are configured to store the received RFID information and the respective data memories of the second cluster of processing elements are configured to store the cellular data.

11. A method comprising:

receiving a first signal of a first type via a plurality of antennas;

processing, by a first plurality of processing elements of an integrated circuit chip, the first signal to generate a set of data;

transferring, by a switch, the set of data to a second plurality of processing elements of the integrated circuit chip;

dynamically adding a portion of the first plurality of processing elements to the second plurality of processing elements based partly on the set of data indicative of a processing load increase to an amount of data processed by the second plurality of processing elements;

processing, by the second plurality of processing elements including the portion of the first plurality of processing elements, the set of data to generate a second signal of a second type; and

transmitting, by the plurality of antennas, the second signal.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first signal of the first type is a radio frequency identification signal.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the second signal of the second type is a cellular signal.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein processing the set of data to generate the second signal of the second type comprises generating a data packet according to a protocol associated with the second type of signal.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising loading an instruction set to a memory on the integrated circuit chip associated with the first plurality of processing elements, wherein the instructions set comprises instructions for processing the first signal to generate the set of data.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising loading an instruction set to a memory on the integrated circuit chip associated with the second plurality of processing elements, wherein the instruction set comprises instructions for processing the set of data to generate the second signal.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving a third signal of the first type via the plurality of antennas; and

processing, by the first plurality of processing elements of the integrated circuit chip, the third signal to generate a second set of data,

wherein the first plurality of processing elements processes the third signal in parallel with the second plurality of processing elements processing the set of data.

18. An apparatus comprising:

a plurality of antennas;

an integrated circuit chip coupled to the plurality of antennas, the integrated circuit chip comprising;

a first cluster of processing elements comprising;

a first plurality of processing elements configured to process RFID information received with the plurality of antennas; and

a second plurality of processing elements configured to process the RFID information; and

a second cluster of processing elements comprising;

a third plurality of processing elements configured to process cellular data received with the plurality of antennas; and

a plurality of switches configured to route processed data from the first cluster of processing elements to the second cluster of processing elements, from the second cluster of processing elements to the first cluster of processing elements, or both, wherein a number of the second cluster of processing elements is dynamically configurable to include a portion of the second plurality of processing elements based on a processing load increase to an amount of the cellular data received with the plurality of antennas, wherein the second cluster of processing elements further comprises the portion of the second plurality of processing elements based on the number of the second cluster of processing elements dynamically configurable to include the portion of the second plurality of processing elements, and wherein the integrated circuit chip further comprises a switch configured to communicate data from the first cluster of processing elements to the second cluster of processing elements.