Patent ID: 7594048
Filing Date: 2009-09-22
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A computer-implemented method of measuring transit time across an asynchronous, first-in-first-out (FIFO) memory, the method comprising: sampling an indication of a value of a read pointer of the FIFO memory at a sampling frequency, wherein the sampling frequency exceeds a frequency of a read clock and a frequency of a write clock of the FIFO memory; sampling an indication of a value of a write pointer of the FIFO memory at the sampling frequency; for each sampling period, determining a measure of occupancy of the FIFO memory that depends upon a sampled pair comprising the indication of the value of the read pointer and the indication of the value of the write pointer; averaging the measure of occupancy over a predetermined number of cycles of the sampling frequency; and outputting the averaged measure of occupancy as an indication of transit time across the FIFO memory.