Advanced Semiconductor Patents to Auction on November 11th at ICAP Ocean Tomo's Fall 2010 Live IP Auction

CHICAGO, Aug. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- ICAP Ocean Tomo, the intellectual property brokerage division of ICAP plc (IAP.L), will auction off three lots of semiconductor technology from United Memories at the upcoming Fall 2010 Live Auction in Napa, California on November 11th. The lots, cover charge-sharing techniques for low power integrated circuit (IC) devices, test interfaces for verification of high speed dynamic random access memory (DRAM) circuitry, and IC memory testing and simultaneous function DRAM technique and hidden refresh for DRAM circuits. The assets have been cited by IBM, AT&T, Hitachi, Texas Instruments, HP, Samsung, California Institute of Technology, Toshiba, Sanyo and the National Semiconductor Corporation among others.

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Existing charge-sharing techniques in IC designs are limited by many factors. The four US patents in this lot describe a short-circuit charge-sharing technique that overcomes existing limitations by allowing for efficient charge-sharing and signal level generation of desired values; providing two additional circuit blocks to enable charge recycle; enabling constant voltage levels and flexible multiplexing; and by allowing for charge-sharing between two or more circuits utilizing a shorting transistor.

The second lot, covering test interfaces for verification of high speed embedded SDRAM circuitry includes two US issued patents and two US patent applications. The patents describe a memory architecture that enables 100% memory system availability via the use of a single DRAM cache and smaller tag than what is utilized in conventional techniques. This technology allows for total hiding of refresh cycles required by DRAM circuits, resulting in a control interface the same as more expensive and lower storage capacity SRAM circuits.

The third lot of four US issued patents and two non-US patent applications describes technology that aims to increase performance to support higher speed processors through IC memory testing and simultaneous function DRAM techniques. The technology enables the execution of multiple commands to a memory array on a single clock cycle which is applicable to embedded memory arrays or specialty DRAMs and Flash memories. The assets also allow for a reduced number of data inputs to be supplied to the memory.

"These patents enable semiconductor memory to move to the next level in terms of speed, power, and cost savings," said Michael Parris, Inventor. "Anyone interested in memory for mobile applications or high performance servers can benefit from the technology contained in these lots."

The $46 billion worldwide memory industry of 2009 is expected to increase to nearly $79 billion in 2014.(1) "These portfolios should be of interest to IC design companies, IC manufacturers, hardware manufacturers, consumer electronics companies, and any other entities that produce, distribute, or market devices that incorporate semiconductors," said Dean Becker, ICAP Ocean Tomo CEO.

To learn more about these patents and how to participate in the Fall 2010 Live Auction please contact Dean Becker at [email protected].

(1) http://www.electronics.ca/presscenter/articles/1272/1/Global-Market-For-Semiconductor-Memory-To-Be-Worth-79-Billion-In-2014/Page1.html

About ICAP Ocean Tomo LLC

ICAP Ocean Tomo is the intellectual property brokerage division of ICAP.

About ICAP

ICAP is the world's premier interdealer broker and provider of post trade services. The Group matches buyers and sellers in the wholesale markets in interest rates, credit, commodities, foreign exchange, emerging markets, equities and equity derivatives through voice and electronic networks. ICAP is also the source of global market information and research for professionals in the international financial markets. ICAP plc was added to the FTSE 100 Index on 30 June 2006. For more information go to www.icap.com.

SOURCE ICAP Ocean Tomo