530results about "Pulse train pattern monitoring" patented technology

When the clock is stopped during a power-down mode, a clock duty-cycle detector asserts a power-down signal. The clock input is filtered to produce an average clock voltage over several clock periods. The average clock voltage is compared to an upper reference voltage to determine when the clock's duty cycle (high pulse-width percent) is above an upper limit. The average clock voltage is also compared to a lower reference voltage to determine when the clock's duty cycle is below a lower limit. When the clock's duty cycle is above the upper limit or below the lower limit the power-down signal is activated by logic. The logic disables the power-down signal when the clock's duty cycle is between the upper and lower limits. High-frequency clock glitches do not falsely trigger a power-up, since glitches are usually narrow and not sufficiently wide to reach the lower limit.

A semiconductor memory device is capable of controlling the data output timing depending on the operating frequency so as to output data with optimized for the operating frequency. Further, in the high frequency operation, the memory device can output data reliably so as to facilitate development of high frequency memory device. The semiconductor memory device comprises a frequency sensing unit for sensing an operating frequency by sensing an amount of lead of a delay locked clock in a delay locked loop compared to an external clock signal, an output enable controlling unit for outputting an output enable signal in response to a CAS latency with controlling the output timing of the output enable signal based on the frequency that is sensed by the frequency sensing unit, and a data output buffer for outputting data that is transferred from a memory core region in response to the output enable signal.

An anti-starvation interrupt protocol for use in avoiding livelock in a multiprocessor computer system is provided. At least one processor is configured to include first and second control status registers (CSRs). The first CSR buffers information, such as interrupts, received by the processor, while the second CSR keeps track of the priority level of the interrupts. When an interrupt controller receives an interrupt, it issues a write transaction to the first CSR at the processor. If the first CSR has room to accept the write transaction, the processor returns an acknowledgement, whereas if the first CSR is already full, the processor returns a no acknowledgment. In response to a no acknowledgment, the interrupt controller increments an interrupt starvation counter, and checks to see whether the counter exceeds a threshold. If not, the interrupt controller waits a preset time and reposts the write transaction. If it does, the interrupt controller issues a write transaction having a higher priority to the second CSR. In response, the processor copies all of the pending interrupts from the first CSR into the memory subsystem, thereby freeing up the first CSR to accept additional write transactions.

An apparatus and method is provided for detecting loss of differential signal carried by a pair of differential signal lines. According to the method, a common mode level is detected from voltages on the pair of differential signal lines. A threshold level is generated, referenced to the detected common mode level. A signal level is generated from the voltages on the pair of differential signal lines, the signal level being averaged over a first period of time. From the threshold level and the detected common mode level a reference level is generated, the reference level being averaged over a second period of time longer than then the first period of time. The signal level is compared to the reference level to determine if a signal is present on the pair of differential signal lines.

The invention provides a clock adjustment circuit and an adjustment method for a clock circuit. The clock adjustment circuit comprises a clock buffer amplifier, a phase discriminator and a duty cycle adjustment circuit, wherein the clock buffer amplifier is used for receiving an external differential clock signal, shaping the differential clock signal into a single-end square wave clock signal and outputting the single-end square wave clock signal; the phase discriminator is used for receiving the single-end square wave clock signal from the clock buffer amplifier and a feedback signal from the duty cycle adjustment circuit, comparing the phase of the single-end square wave clock signal with the phase of the feedback signal to acquire a phase difference, and outputting the phase difference; and the duty cycle adjustment circuit is used for adjusting the duty cycle of the feedback signal by using the phase difference to acquire an adjusted feedback signal. The differential signal is shaped into the single-end square wave clock signal, the single-end square wave clock signal is compared with the feedback signal to acquire the phase difference, and the duty cycle is adjusted according to the phase difference, so that the complexity of duty cycle adjustment and hardware implementation can be effectively reduced, phase errors and the ripple waves of control voltage can be reduced, and adjustment accuracy is improved.

A method and a circuit for detecting a disturbance of a state of at least one first flip-flop from a group of several first flip-flops of an electronic circuit, wherein: the respective outputs of the first flip-flops in the group are, independently from their functional purpose, combined to provide a signal and its inverse, triggering two second flip-flops having data inputs forced to a same state, the respective outputs of the second flip-flops being combined to provide the result of the detection; and a pulse signal comprising a pulse at least for each triggering edge of one of the first flip-flops in the group initializes the second flip-flops.

A power on detection circuit for accurately detecting an input voltage with a simple circuit structure and reduced current consumption includes a voltage conversion circuit, which converts input voltage into current, and a latch circuit, which holds the power on detection signal. The voltage conversion circuit supplies output current to a current source and a capacitor via a connection node. The current source generates a flow of current that is proportional to the absolute temperature. When the output current of the voltage conversion circuit becomes greater than the current of the current source, the capacitor is charged and the voltage at the connection node is pulled up. A latching circuit is activated in accordance with the voltage at the connection node to output a power on detection signal.

A redundant-source clock generator has only two oscillators, rather than three oscillators. A secondary oscillator is phase-locked to a primary clock from a primary oscillator using a phase detector, charge pump, and filter that generate a control voltage to the secondary oscillator that determine the frequency of a secondary clock. The primary clock is compared to the secondary clock to detect primary clock failure. When clock failure is detected, a mux is switched to select a delayed secondary clock rather than a delayed primary clock to output as a system clock. Since the mux receives delayed clock signals, clock-failure detection has additional time to detect the clock failure before the clock failure is propagated through the mux. When the primary oscillator fails and the clock failure is detected, the phase detector stops comparing a feedback secondary clock to the primary clock and instead holds the control voltage steady.

A system-on-chip includes a clock controller configured to decrease an operating frequency of at least one function block based on a change in an operating state of the at least one function block from an active state to an idle state. In a method of operating a system-on-chip including at least one function block, an operating frequency of the at least one function block is decreased based on a change in an operating state of the at least one function block from an active state to an idle state. The decreased operating frequency is greater than zero.

A ring oscillator clock frequency measuring circuit includes a reference clock count timer and a ring oscillator clock count timer. The reference clock count timer starts its counting of a reference clock signal in response to a start instruction fed from a CPU, and outputs an overflow signal when its counting reaches a preset value. The ring oscillator clock count timer starts its counting of pulses of a ring oscillator clock signal in response to the start instruction fed from the CPU, and continues its counting until the reference clock count timer generates the overflow signal. The frequency of the ring oscillator clock signal is obtained from the count value of the ring oscillator clock count timer. This makes it possible to measure the frequency of the ring oscillator clock signal at high accuracy, and to reduce the current consumption by operating the CPU based on the ring oscillator clock signal after the measurement.

In a semiconductor integrated circuit, a counter counts the number of high-speed clock signals that have been generated in a predetermined number of clock cycles of a low-speed clock signal. In synchronization with the low-speed clock signal, the semiconductor integrated circuit compares the counter value and a predetermined value, and judges whether the frequency of the high-speed clock signal has reaches a predetermined frequency. Since variations in the frequency become smaller as the oscillation of a high-speed oscillator stabilizes, the semiconductor integrated circuit detects that the oscillation is stable when the semiconductor integrated circuit has judged affirmatively a plurality of times.

A time-to-digital converter (TDC) includes a converter which receives a first signal and a second signal, delays the second signal in phases using a plurality of delay elements which are coupled in series, compares the delayed second signal with the first signal, and outputs a phase error of the second signal with respect to the first signal, a phase frequency detector which receives the first signal, and a third signal from one of the nodes in the plurality of delay elements, and outputs a phase difference between the first signal and the third signal, and a frequency detector which outputs a frequency error of the second signal with respect to the first signal as a digital code using an output signal of the phase frequency detector and the second signal.

The present invention relates to a quadrature divider which may be used in a phase locked loop or frequency synthesiser or with a single side band mixer. According to a preferred embodiment the divider takes a quadrature input and has a quadrature output. The divider has four analog mixers 1, 2, 3 and 4. The first two mixers 1, 2 take the in-phase quadrature input, while the second mixers 3, 4 take the quadrature-phase quadrature input. The outputs and feedback loops of the mixers are properly arranged such that the in-phase and quadrature-phase outputs of the divider have a determinisitic phase sequence relationship based on the phase sequence relationship of the corresponding quadrature inputs. Third order harmonics may be minimised or reduced by addition or subtraction of the mixer outputs. As the divider is able to take a quadrature input, there is no need for a dummy divider in the phase locked loop, thus saving space and power.

A signal detector and method detect the presence or absence of an incoming differential signal. The method nullifies the DC off-set of the signal detector so that it can detect a signal within a very narrow window. The common mode levels of the signal and reference paths are used for calibration which is done automatically by use of an embedded algorithm residing in a digital block. The calibration range and resolution are predetermined to cope with the technology, modeling, design methodology and human error.

A malfunction detection circuit realized by a simple circuit structure is incorporated into a semiconductor integrated circuit without increasing the scale thereof, in order to prevent loss etc. of data due to a malfunction of the semiconductor integrated circuit. Malfunctions can be prevented without relying on measuring temperature or power supply voltage which are analog values, thereby improving the reliability of the semiconductor integrated circuit. A detection-target flip-flop in a function block is synchronized to a clock, and another flip-flop is synchronized to a clock whose phase has been delayed behind or advanced ahead of the former clock. A logic operation is performed using output from both flip-flops to determine whether a latch operation has been performed at an appropriate clock pulse edge in a clock pulse train. The malfunction countermeasure is performed if the latch operation is determined to have been performed at an inappropriate clock pulse edge.

An integrated circuit has a loss of signal (LOS) system for detecting a loss of signal condition for an input data stream according to a LOS threshold. The LOS threshold specifies a minimum signal magnitude indicating the loss of signal condition. The integrated circuit includes a sampling circuit to sample a LOS signal, which receives a sampling threshold specifying a signal magnitude for a sampled signal above which the sampling circuit samples the sampled signal as a first digital value and below which the sampling circuit samples the sampled signal as a second digital value. A digital control circuit coupled to an output of the sampling circuit generates a calibrated digital representation of the sampling threshold according to a plurality of samples of the LOS signal. The calibrated sampling threshold is then used during loss of signal evaluation.