Memory Access Clocking Without a Local Oscillator
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Solution Overview
Problem
Integrated circuits used for serial presence detect (SPD) and temperature sensing in microcomputers have high power consumption, which is a critical issue for portable and handheld applications, as they often maintain unnecessary components powered, leading to increased energy usage.
Innovation Solution
An integrated circuit with a control circuit that enables and disables oscillator functions based on operational modes, allowing external oscillator signals to be used, reducing power consumption by selectively powering components, especially in SPD-only mode.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the oscillator is permanently powered to provide clocking for memory access, then the reliability of SPD and temperature sensing functions is improved, but the power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The oscillator's power state is made dynamic rather than static. The control circuit monitors functional requirements and dynamically transitions the oscillator between powered and unpowered states, allowing the system to adapt power consumption to actual operational needs while maintaining reliability when functions are active.
Solution Approach 2:
The control circuit automatically manages the oscillator's power state based on detected functional requirements, eliminating the need for manual intervention. The system self-regulates by detecting when SPD or temperature sensing functions are active and accordingly powering or unpowering the oscillator to optimize the balance between reliability and power consumption.
2Device complexity
If multiple functions are integrated into a single IC, then the device complexity and component count are reduced, but the power consumption increases due to shared components remaining powered
Solution Approach 1:
The integrated circuit's power management is segmented into function-specific control. Rather than powering the entire IC or shared components uniformly, the control circuit segments power distribution by selectively powering only the oscillator when specific functions (SPD or temperature sensing) are active, allowing integrated circuits to maintain low power consumption even with multiple functions.
3Ease of manufacture
If a common platform IC is supplied for multiple applications, then manufacturing costs are reduced, but power consumption increases as not all variants require full functionality
Solution Approach 1:
The power management implementation applies local quality control to different functional portions of the IC. The control circuit identifies which specific function (SPD or temperature sensing) is active and applies power only to the locally required components, allowing a common platform IC to be manufactured with full functionality while consuming minimal power in any given application variant.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of accessing electronic memory is provided in electronic circuits where it is desired to lower power consumption and hence there is no active oscillator at the time when access to data within the electronic memory is required. The invention provides a method therefore for accessing the electronic memory from a controller, which generates its own clock signals from a data, communications bus electrically coupled to the controller. Advantageously the method allows for memory access to be continued in integrated circuits where a subset of circuits are powered down to reduce power consumption, and one of the subset of circuits is an oscillator.