Clock Switching Circuit Activity Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing clock switching circuits face challenges in preventing switching to inactive clock sources, which can lead to system deadlocks due to software errors or external device failures, especially when operating in unpredictable environments.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a clock switching circuit that detects the activity-status indication of multiple clock sources, generating an update-enable or update-disable signal to control switching requests, ensuring that only active clock sources are selected, using detection circuitry, update-enable circuitry, control circuitry, and switching circuitry to manage clock select input signals.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If clock switching circuits allow switching between multiple clock sources to optimize performance and power consumption, then system flexibility and adaptability are improved, but the risk of switching to inactive clock sources increases, which can cause system deadlocks and reduce reliability
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by detecting the activity status of clock sources before allowing switching to occur. The detection circuitry checks whether a clock source is active before the switching circuitry can select it, preventing switches to inactive sources that would cause deadlocks. This advance verification ensures reliability is maintained while preserving switching flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism in the form of detection circuitry and control logic that mediates between the switching request and the actual clock source selection. This intermediary layer verifies clock activity status and only permits switching when the target clock source is confirmed active, thus resolving the contradiction between flexible switching and system reliability.
2Reliability
If clock switching circuits implement detection circuitry to verify clock source activity status before switching, then system reliability is improved by preventing deadlocks, but device complexity increases due to additional circuit components
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the detection function with the existing clock switching circuitry rather than implementing completely separate detection and switching subsystems. The detection circuitry is integrated into the clock switching path, sharing common circuit elements and control signals, which reduces overall complexity while maintaining reliability improvements.
Data Source
AI summary
For use in systems having multiple potential clock sources, circuitry and methods are used for selecting from among multiple clock sources and for preventing switching to an inactive clock source. Such clock switching circuitry and methods are used to detect an activity-status indication of the clock sources, generate a selection based update-enable signal responsive to the detected activity-status indication of the selected clock source, update a clock select input signal in response to a clock switch request for switching to the selected clock source and based on the generated selection based update-enable signal, and control switching to the selected clock source based on the updated clock select input signal.