CONFORMAL ROLLING BUFFER APPARATUS, SYSTEMS, AND METHODS

• US 20080307186A1
• Filed: 06/06/2007
• Published: 12/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aptina Imaging Corporation (ON Semiconductor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
• Inventors: Silverstein, Amnon
• Granted Patent: US 8,543,788 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/170
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/772 the recording apparatus and the television camera being placed in the same enclosure
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/907 using static stores, e.g. storage tubes or semiconductor memories H04N5/91 takes precedence

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, and systems may operate to more efficiently utilize data stored in an array of storage blocks organized as rows and columns of contiguous blocks, where non-linearity is present in the data. Activities may include organizing data to discard useless elements from storage blocks when transferring the data to a memory buffer, and perhaps compressing the data for increased memory density utilization. Additional activities may include reconstructing data stored in the memory buffer and using an image distortion formula to display a linear representation of the non-linear data.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving an allocation request at a storage device configurable as an array of storage blocks having rows and columns;

receiving a start index associated with the beginning of the array;

calculating a memory index for at least one storage block within the array using an integral function based upon a shape of the array and the start index; and

transferring data from the storage device to a memory device according to the memory index.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving an allocation request is associated with reading data from the storage device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the integral function for each storage block in the array is unique.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving a start index occurs once for each of the rows having the data stored therein.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the transferring comprises:

copying the data stored in at least two of the rows to a temporary memory cell included in a plurality of memory cells included in the memory device;

compressing the data in the temporary memory cell to provide compressed data; and

storing the compressed data in at least one compression memory cell included in the plurality of memory cells.

6. A method comprising:

receiving an allocation request from a processor configured to manage data communicated between a memory device comprising a plurality of memory cells and a storage device configurable as an array of storage blocks having rows and columns;

identifying at least one of the rows and the columns having a portion of the data stored therein;

searching for a start index associated with the at least one of the rows and the columns;

calculating a memory index using an integral function based upon the shape of the array and the start index; and

transferring the data according to the memory index from the storage blocks to the plurality of memory cells.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein receiving an allocation request is associated with reading data from the memory device.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein a start index is included only once for each row of data to be transferred.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the transferring comprises:

copying the data contained in the at least one memory cell to a temporary memory block;

decompressing the data contained in the temporary memory block; and

storing the decompressed data in two or more rows of the storage device.

10. A method comprising:

searching for a start index associated with a selected row of pixels forming a portion of a pixel array having rows and columns after a beginning of an integration time associated with acquiring an image;

calculating a memory index based on the start index and an image distortion formula;

transferring data according to the memory index from at least two of the rows to a temporary block included in a plurality of memory cells;

compressing the data stored within the temporary block to provide compressed data; and

writing the compressed data to a compression buffer included in the plurality of memory cells.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the image distortion formula comprises a function of information included in the image.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein writing the compressed data occurs after an end of the integration time.

13. An apparatus comprising:

a sensor module configurable as a plurality of storage blocks having rows and columns; and

a memory device to couple to the sensor module, the memory device including a memory block comprising a plurality of memory cells to store data received from the plurality of storage blocks, wherein the plurality of storage blocks are associated with the plurality of memory cells using a calculated memory index based upon a distortion formula and a start index.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the plurality of memory cells are configurable as a temporary memory block to store the data from at least two storage blocks of the sensor module, and a compression memory block, wherein the data stored within at least two of the memory cells of the temporary memory block are to be compressed and stored within at least one of the memory cells of the compression memory block according to the distortion formula.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the sensor module comprises:

an array of pixels.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the start index corresponds to a first pixel of a group comprising at least one of the rows and the columns having the data stored therein.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, comprising:

a calculator module coupled to the array of pixels and the temporary memory block, the calculator module configurable as an index calculator to calculate the memory index.

18. The apparatus of claim 13, comprising:

a processor coupled to the sensor module to manage transferring the data between the sensor module and the memory device within an integration time associated with the sensor module.

19. A system comprising:

a lens;

a sensor module to store data associated with an image captured by the lens, the sensor module including a controller and comprising an array of storage blocks organized as rows and columns, wherein at least one storage block in each of the rows and the columns includes a start index to identify a location of the at least one storage block within the array having the data stored therein; and

a memory device to couple to the sensor module, the memory device including a plurality of memory cells, wherein at least one of the plurality of memory cells is associated with the at least one storage block using a memory index to be calculated using a distortion formula including a start index, and wherein some of the plurality of memory cells form a compression buffer, wherein the data stored in the at least two memory cells in the plurality of memory cells is to be compressed and stored in at least one of the memory cells of the compression buffer as determined by the distortion formula.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the sensor module comprises:

an imaging device to store the data in the storage blocks, the data comprising a representation of the image as distorted by the lens.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the distortion formula is determined in part by a shape of the lens.

22. The system of claim 19 comprising:

a cellular telephone transceiver to transmit a portion of the data.

23. The system of claim 19 comprising:

a media player and a keypad control module to couple to the controller.

24. The system of claim 19 comprising:

a display device to couple to the controller and to display a portion of the data.

25. The system of claim 19 comprising:

a flash memory device to couple to the controller and to store a portion of the data.

26. A method of operating a memory system comprising:

acquiring a portion of an image from a lens as image portion data using an imaging device during an integration time associated with the imaging device;

transferring the image portion data from a set of pixels in the imaging device to a plurality of memory cells in response to receiving an allocation request from a controller providing a start index;

calculating a memory index from a lens distortion formula using the start index to associate at least one of the plurality of memory cells with at least one of the set of pixels;

reconstructing the image portion data from the plurality of memory cells to provide a reconstructed image portion in response to receiving an allocation request from the controller using the memory index derived from the lens distortion formula; and

storing the image portion data within a flash memory device.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein calculating a memory index is followed by:

copying the data from at least two of the plurality of memory cells to a temporary buffer comprising some of the plurality of memory cells;

compressing the data within the temporary buffer to provide compressed data; and

transferring the compressed data to a compression buffer comprising at least one of the plurality of memory cells.

28. The method of claim 26, further comprising:

displaying the reconstructed image portion on a display device.