Today the US Patent & Trademark Office published a series of patent applications from Apple worth touching on. One relates to a new Electromagnetic Shielding Testing Chamber, four others relate to GPUs and one covers Windows for future Vehicles.   

Beyond devices, CPUs, GPUs and software, Apple also files patents for Apple Stores, Apple Store displays and fixtures and other things. Today the U.S. Patent Office published a patent titled "Electromagnetic Shielding Testing Chamber with Ventilation" and is the first patent covered today.

In Apple's patent background they note that Electronic devices, such as laptops, mobile phones, televisions, smart watches, AM/FM radios, and the like, include various components, such as transceivers, transmitters, receivers, and antennas, to wirelessly transmit and/or receive communications via electromagnetic waves, such as radio waves. These components, referred to in certain instances of the present disclosure as electromagnetically sensitive equipment, may be tuned or otherwise configured to convert between electrical data signals and electromagnetic waves. In order to ensure adequate performance of the electromagnetically sensitive equipment, a testing apparatus defining a testing chamber may be employed to test various performance metrics of the electromagnetically sensitive equipment.

However, conventional testing apparatuses may include or be employed in relatively uncontrolled environments. For example, conventional testing apparatuses may include poor temperature control of the testing chamber in which the electromagnetically sensitive equipment is disposed for testing. Further, conventional testing apparatuses may include poor shielding of the testing chamber from transmission of electromagnetic waves into the testing chamber from an external environment, and poor electromagnetic anti-reflective properties that enable undesirable reflection of electromagnetic waves from internal surfaces of the testing apparatus toward the electromagnetically sensitive equipment.

The relatively uncontrolled environment of conventional testing apparatuses may lead to inaccurate test results, imprecise tuning of the electromagnetically sensitive equipment, and inadequate performance of the electromagnetically sensitive equipment and corresponding electronic devices. Accordingly, it is now recognized that an improved testing apparatus for testing electromagnetically sensitive equipment is desired.

In one embodiment, a testing apparatus for electromagnetically sensitive equipment includes a housing defining a testing chamber. The housing is configured to block transmission of electromagnetic waves from an external environment into the testing chamber and to reduce reflection of electromagnetic waves within the testing chamber. The testing apparatus also includes a tube defining an air flow path between the testing chamber and the external environment. The tube is configured to block transmission of electromagnetic waves from the external environment into the air flow path. The tube includes a proximal end coupled to an opening in the housing such that the air flow path is fluidly coupled to the testing chamber via the opening, a distal end opposing the proximal end, and a bent segment extending between the proximal end and the distal end.

Apple's patent FIG. 1 below is a perspective view of an embodiment of a testing apparatus #10 for testing electromagnetically sensitive equipment. The testing apparatus may include a testing chamber #12 that receives the electromagnetically sensitive equipment. The electromagnetically sensitive equipment may include, for example, a transceiver, a transmitter, a receiver, and/or an antenna, or any device having these components, utilized to wirelessly transmit and/or receive communications via electromagnetic waves, such as radio waves. For example, the electromagnetically sensitive equipment may be used in a variety of electronic communication devices, such as laptops, mobile phones, televisions, AM/FM radios, smart watches, and the like.

Tests conducted via the testing apparatus may be performed to tune or otherwise configure the electromagnetically sensitive equipment for, for example, appropriately converting between electrical data signals and electromagnetic signals, such as radio frequency signals. In order to test the electromagnetically sensitive equipment in a controlled environment, the testing apparatus may include various features that control a temperature of the testing chamber and/or isolate the testing chamber and the electromagnetically sensitive equipment within the testing chamber from various types of electromagnetic interference. The controlled environment associated with embodiments of the present disclosure may improve accuracy and precision of the tests conducted on the electromagnetically sensitive equipment.

Engineers may be interested in reviewing the details of this invention under patent application US 20230050818 A1.

Windows with Molded Layer of Polished Glass

In the last year Patently Apple has covered two Project Titan patents about various advanced window systems for future autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles (01 and 02) that have been far more sophisticated than today's published patent application is. Nonetheless, for those following Apple's vehicle system patents, it could be of interest.

Apple's patent abstract states that "A vehicle or other system may have windows. The windows may be formed by laminating together molded sheets of polished float glass. Sheets of float glass may be polished on one side, leaving an opposing side unpolished. Following polishing, the sheets may be placed in a molding tool. The molding tool may mold the polished sheets into a desired shape such as a shape characterized by curved surfaces. The curved surfaces may include surfaces of compound curvature. Lamination equipment may use polymer to laminate first and second molded sheets of polished glass together with their polished sides facing outwardly away from each other. Light modulators and/or other electrically adjustable layers may be incorporated into the windows." For more on this, review Apple's patent application US 20230046757 A1

Four GPU System Related Patents

In an interview with TechCrunch, Tim Millet Apple’s vice president of Platform Architecture and Hardware Technologies and Bob Borchers, VP of Worldwide Product Marketing discussed Apple's M2 chip and touched on pushing into gaming as Apple pushes the M-Series GPU.

Borchers told TechCrunch that Apple is feeling like the Apple silicon gaming story is getting more solid release by release.

"With Capcom bringing Resident Evil across, and other titles starting to come along, I think the AAA community is starting to wake up and understand the opportunity. Because what we have now, with our portfolio of M-series Macs, is a set of incredibly performant machines and a growing audience of people who have these incredibly performant systems that can all be addressed with a single code base that is developing over time.

With that in mind, a series of four patents were published today by the U.S. Patent Office that specifically relate to various aspects of Graphics Processors that engineers, developers and super-geek hardware enthusiasts may want to dive into.

Logical Slot To Hardware Slot Mapping For Graphics Processors: Disclosed techniques relate to work distribution in graphics processors. In some embodiments, an apparatus includes circuitry that implements a plurality of logical slots and a set of graphics processor sub-units that each implement multiple distributed hardware slots. The circuitry may determine different distribution rules for first and second sets of graphics work and map logical slots to distributed hardware slots based on the distribution rules. In various embodiments, disclosed techniques may advantageously distribute work efficiently across distributed shader processors for graphics kicks of various sizes. For details and patent figures, review patent application US 20230050061 A1.

Affinity-based Graphics Scheduling: Techniques are disclosed relating to affinity-based scheduling of graphics work. In disclosed embodiments, first and second groups of graphics processor sub-units may share respective first and second caches. Distribution circuitry may receive a software-specified set of graphics work and a software-indicated mapping of portions of the set of graphics work to groups of graphics processor sub-units. The distribution circuitry may assign subsets of the set of graphics work based on the mapping. This may improve cache efficiency, in some embodiments, by allowing graphics work that accesses the same memory areas to be assigned to the same group of sub-units that share a cache. For details and patent figures, review patent US 20230047481 A1.

Kickslot Manager Circuitry For Graphics Processors: Disclosed embodiments relate to controlling sets of graphics work (e.g., kicks) assigned to graphics processor circuitry. In some embodiments, tracking slot circuitry implements entries for multiple tracking slots. Slot manager circuitry may store, using an entry of the tracking slot circuitry, software-specified information for a set of graphics work, where the information includes: type of work, dependencies on other sets of graphics work, and location of data for the set of graphics work. The slot manager circuitry may prefetch, from the location and prior to allocating shader core resources for the set of graphics work, configuration register data for the set of graphics work. Control circuitry may program configuration registers for the set of graphics work using the prefetched data and initiate processing of the set of graphics work by the graphics processor circuitry according to the dependencies. Disclosed techniques may reduce kick-to-kick transition time, in some embodiments. For details and patent figures, review patent US 20230048951 A1

Software Control Techniques For Graphics Hardware That Supports Logical Slots: Disclosed embodiments relate to software control of graphics hardware that supports logical slots. In some embodiments, a GPU includes circuitry that implements a plurality of logical slots and a set of graphics processor sub-units that each implement multiple distributed hardware slots. Control circuitry may determine mappings between logical slots and distributed hardware slots for different sets of graphics work. Various mapping aspects may be software-controlled. For example, software may specify one or more of the following: priority information for a set of graphics work, to retain the mapping after completion of the work, a distribution rule, a target group of sub-units, a sub-unit mask, a scheduling policy, to reclaim hardware slots from another logical slot, etc. Software may also query status of the work. For details and patent figures, review patent US 20230051906 A1.