597 results about "Clock gating" patented technology

A system and method for dynamic function based power control is disclosed. In one embodiment, a system includes a bridge unit having a memory controller and a communication hub coupled to the memory controller. The system further includes a power management unit, wherein the power management unit is configured to clock-gate the communication hub responsive to determining that each of a plurality of processor cores are in an idle state and that an I/O interface unit has been idle for an amount of time exceeding a first threshold. The power management unit is further configured to clock-gate the memory controller responsive to clock-gating the communication hub and determining that a memory coupled to the memory controller is in a first low power state. The power management unit may also perform power-gating of functional units subsequent to clock-gating the same.

For retaining an output data signal of a data retention cell in a power-saving mode, a slave latch unit of the data retention cell is powered with a real power for preserving the output data signal. The output data signal is furnished backward to an input control circuit of the data retention cell. The data signal furnished to a master latch unit of the data retention cell is controlled to switch between an input data signal and the output data signal by the input control circuit in response to a retention signal. The switching of the data signal for refreshing the master latch unit is delayed by a delay unit of the input control circuit, which functions to make sure that the data-preserving process is properly operated on any transition from the power-saving mode to a power-active mode.

In a logic circuit where clock gating is performed, the standby power is reduced or malfunction is suppressed. The logic circuit includes a transistor which is in an off state where a potential difference exists between a source terminal and a drain terminal over a period during which a clock signal is not supplied. A channel formation region of the transistor is formed using an oxide semiconductor in which the hydrogen concentration is reduced. Specifically, the hydrogen concentration of the oxide semiconductor is 5x10¹⁹ (atoms/cm³) or lower. Thus, leakage current of the transistor can be reduced. As a result, in the logic circuit, reduction in standby power and suppression of malfunction can be achieved.

A computer aided design technique for clock gated logic circuits effective to reduce the electric power consumption is disclosed. The computer aided design for clock gated logic circuits is conducted by extracting, by the use of information about a clock gated logic circuit under the design, a halt condition under which a clocked circuit driven by a clock signal can halt with no clock signal supplied, generating enable signal candidates, from said halt condition, which can be used as enable signals in the clock gated logic circuit, analyzing the clock gated logic circuit in order to obtain information about a delay time of signal transmission and electric power consumption reduction if respective one of enable signal candidates is used as an enable signal of a clock gating circuit inserted in the clock gated logic circuit under the design, storing enable signal candidate information including the result of the analysis conducted by said analysis step in a information store means, selecting an appropriate one of the enable signal candidates which satisfy given restrictions regarding a delay time of signal transmission in the clock gated logic circuit under the design, by the use of said enable signal candidate information; and adding the clock gating circuit activated with the enable signal as selected by said enable signal selection step to the clock gated logic circuit under the design.

A method of optimizing clock-gated circuitry in an integrated circuit (IC) design is provided. A plurality of signals which feed into enable inputs of a plurality of clock gates is determined, where the clock gates gate a plurality of sequential elements in the IC design. Combinational logic which is shared among the plurality of signals is identified. The clock-gated circuitry is transformed into multiple levels of clock-gating circuitry based on the shared combinational logic.

A standby self-detection mechanism in a DMA controller which reduces the power consumption by dynamically controlling the on/off states of at least one clock tree driven by global clock-gating circuitry is disclosed. The DMA controller comprises a standby self-detection unit, a scheduler, at least one set of channel configuration registers associated with at least one DMA channel, and an internal request queue which holds already scheduled DMA requests that are presently outstanding in the DMA controller. The standby self-detection unit drives a signal to a global clock-gating circuitry to selectively turn on or off at least one of the clock trees to the DMA controller, depending on whether the DMA controller is presently performing a DMA transfer.

A method and apparatus for controlling power consumption in a multi-threaded processor. In one embodiment, the processor includes at least one logic unit for processing instructions. The logic unit includes a plurality of positions, wherein each of the plurality of positions corresponds to at least one instruction thread. Clock signals may be provided to the logic unit via a clock gating unit. The clock gating unit is configured to inhibit a clock signal from being provided to a corresponding one of the thread positions when no instruction thread is active for that position. The inhibiting of the clock signal for an inactive thread position may reduce power consumption by the processor.

A method and an activity tracking device for controlling clock gating of a data processing block is provided. The processing block is one of a plurality of data processing blocks of a circuitry system interconnected by a streaming data bus. The activity tracking device receives a busy indication from processing units and streaming data bus segments of the data processing block to keep track of the data transfer and processing activity therein, and has an output connected to a clock gate at the root of the local clock distribution network of the data processing block to gate off the clock of the data processing block when an idle condition is detected, and to recover the clock when a wake-up condition is detected. This provides a low complexity way of automatic clock gating in SoC designs, and generally a way to reduce power consumption of electronic devices.

A clock gating circuit reduces the power dissipation in a digital circuit including at least one functional block by gating the clock signal at an input to a clock tree feeding the functional block. The clock gating circuit includes a logic gate that receives a clock signal and a clock disable signal generated by the functional block, and gates the clock signal at the input to the clock tree feeding the functional block. Further, a global signal generator is provided to transmit a global signal to each of the functional blocks to prevent the generation of clock disable signals, when necessary, such as during testing of chips.

An aspect of the present disclosure provides a hardware element in a Network on Chip (NoC), wherein the hardware element includes a clock gating circuit configures one or more neighboring hardware elements to activate before receiving new incoming data and to sleep after a defined number of cycles, wherein the defined number of cycles can be counted from a cycle having non-receipt of incoming data and/or having a clearance of all data within an input queue of a source hardware element.

A system and method for automatically updating with hardware clock tree settings on a system-on-a-chip (SOC). A SOC includes a hardware clock control unit (HCCU) coupled to a software interface and a clock tree. The SOC also includes multiple integrated circuit (IC) devices, wherein each IC device receives one or more associated core clocks provided by one or more phase lock loops (PLLs) via the clock tree. The HCCU receives a software-initiated request specifying a given IC device is to be enabled. The HCCU identifies one or more core clocks used by the given IC device. For each one of the identified core clocks, the HCCU configures associated circuitry within the clock tree to generate an identified core clock. The HCCU may also traverse the clock tree and disable clock generating gates found not to drive any other enabled gates or IC devices.

A scan chain circuit causes a plurality of flip-flops to function as shift registers during execution of a scan test and can execute a scan shift that serially transfers test pattern data for the scan test. A clock gating circuit controls output of a pulse of a clock signal supplied to the scan chain circuit in accordance with a clock gating signal, whereas disables the clock gating signal based on a logic of a scan enable signal authorizing the scan shift. A first clock gating circuit included in the clock gating circuit disables the clock gating signal during the scan shift based on the logic of the scan enable signal and also inverts the clock signal and outputs a result of inverting.

The invention discloses a single event radiation effect resistant reinforced latch circuit. The single event radiation effect resistant reinforced latch circuit comprises a first transmission gate unit, a second transmission gate unit, a Schmitt inverter, a conventional input separation inverter, a first input separation clock-controlled inverter, a second input separation clock-controlled inverter, a delay circuit and a MullerC unit circuit. When the single event radiation effect resistant reinforced latch circuit operates under a transparent mode, a hysteresis effect of the Schmitt inverter and a delay difference of a latch interior unit are effectively used and SET pulses from a combinational logic unit are shielded through the MullerC unit; when the single event radiation effect resistant reinforced latch circuit operates under a latch mode, any interior node generating SEU due to the irradiation effect can be recovered through states of other nodes through a DIC unit structure having a self-recovery capability and correct output of the latch is guaranteed; accordingly the single event radiation effect resistant reinforced latch circuit has the advantages of effectively eliminating the radiation effect influences and being applicable to a clock gating circuit and small in power consumption and area costs.

A clock-gating circuit is disclosed that may reduce unnecessary power consumption associated with clock distribution networks. For some embodiments, the clock-gating circuit includes a latch control circuit, a storage latch, and a logic gate. The control circuit has inputs to receive an input clock signal, a clock enable signal, and a clock gating control signal, and has an output terminal to generate a latch enable signal. The latch has a data terminal responsive to the clock enable signal, a latch enable terminal responsive to the latch enable signal, and an output to generate the clock gating control signal. The logic gate has inputs to receive the input clock signal and the clock gating control signal, and has an output terminal to generate an output clock signal. The clock-gating circuit may reduce power consumption during an enabled state by maintaining the latch enable signal at a constant logic state, thereby reducing dynamic power consumption by preventing internal logic gates from dynamically switching logic states while the input clock signal is gated.