In what has been described as something of a branding exercise, Sandcraft, the electronics designer, has released a list of newly granted patents. Our advisors assure us that there is nothing utterly earth shattering in here, but that there are some new ways of doing old tricks. Or, in other words, they are evolutionary developments in design.

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• Number 6,085,271, a system bus arbitrator for facilitating multiple transactions in a computer system.
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• Number 6,070,229, cache memory cell with a pre-programmed state.
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• Number 6,055,606, writeback cache cell with a dual ported dirty bit cell and method for operating such a cache cell.
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• Number 6,035,388, a method and apparatus for dual issue of program instructions to symmetric multifunctional execution units.

For a fuller description of the patents go to the US Patent Office home page and search by number. ®