Patent application number | Description | Published |
20130249616 | SWITCHING ARRANGEMENT, INTEGRATED CIRCUIT COMPRISING SAME, METHOD OF CONTROLLING A SWITCHING ARRANGEMENT, AND RELATED COMPUTER PRORAM PRODUCT - There is disclosed a switching arrangement comprising a switch with a plurality of individually controllable elementary switches connected in parallel between a first supply rail and a second supply rail. Each of the elementary switches can be in either one of a closed state and an open state independently of the others. A controller is adapted to dynamically control the closing or opening of the elementary switches, depending on the intensity of a current flowing through the switch. The number of elementary switches in the closed state is variable. The higher is the intensity of the current, the higher the number of elementary switches in the closed state. Thus, the impedance of the switch decreases when the current increases, and vice versa, and the voltage drop across the switch may be kept substantially constant. | 09-26-2013 |
20130308409 | INTEGRATED CIRCUIT DEVICE, POWER MANAGEMENT MODULE AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING POWER MANAGEMENT - An integrated circuit device comprising at least one memory module comprising a plurality of memory sub-modules, and at least one power management module arranged to provide power management for the at least one memory module. The at least one power management module is arranged to determine when content of at least one memory sub-module is redundant, and place the at least one memory sub-module into a powered-down state upon determining that content of the at least one memory sub-module is redundant. | 11-21-2013 |
20140002160 | INTEGRATED CIRCUIT AND METHOD FOR REDUCING AN IMPACT OF ELECTRICAL STRESS IN AN INTEGRATED CIRCUIT | 01-02-2014 |
20140021557 | APPARATUS FOR FORWARD WELL BIAS IN A SEMICONDUCTOR INTEGRATED CIRCUIT - There is provided a semiconductor Integrated Circuit device having forward well biasing, in which at least one protection device is connected between a supply voltage and a forward well bias voltage. | 01-23-2014 |
20140032139 | ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND METHOD - An electronic device comprises one or more functional units, each functional unit being clocked by a respective clock signal. The electronic device further comprises a monitoring unit for providing a real-time estimate of an electrical current consumed by the functional units. The monitoring unit provides the real-time estimate on the basis of characteristic signals. The characteristic signals may comprise one or more of said clock signals, or one or more clock generating signals used to generate said clock signals. The electronic device may further comprise a power regulator responsive to the real-time estimate. A method of estimating in real-time an electrical current consumed by one or more functional units is also described. | 01-30-2014 |
20140077598 | VOLTAGE REGULATING CIRCUIT AND METHOD - A voltage regulating circuit is provided for regulating an output voltage in order to minimize an absolute difference between a level of said output voltage and a reference level. The voltage regulating circuit comprises a voltage regulator and a reference level generator. The reference level generator generates an internal reference level on the basis of said output voltage level and said reference level such that said internal reference level does not exceed said output voltage level by more than a maximum allowed increment. The voltage regulator regulates said output voltage in order to minimize an absolute difference between said output voltage level and said internal reference level. A method of regulating an output voltage is also disclosed. | 03-20-2014 |
20140097884 | INTEGRATED CIRCUIT DEVICE AND METHOD OF IMPLEMENTING POWER GATING WITHIN AN INTEGRATED CIRCUIT DEVICE - An integrated circuit device comprises at least one power gating arrangement, including at least one gated power domain and at least one power gating component operably coupled between at least one node of the at least one gated power domain and at least a first power supply node. The at least one power gating component is arranged to selectively couple the at least one node of the at least one gated power domain to the at least first power supply node. | 04-10-2014 |
20140115358 | INTEGRATED CIRCUIT DEVICE AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING AN OPERATING MODE OF AN ON-DIE MEMORY - An integrated circuit device comprising at least one instruction processing module, at least one memory comprising at least one memory bank configurable to operate in a first functional mode and at least one further, lower-power mode, and at least one memory mode control module arranged to control switching of the at least one memory bank between the first functional mode and the at least one further, lower-power modes. | 04-24-2014 |
20140155027 | ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND A COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT - An electronic device comprises a secured module arranged to store secured data. A component outside the secured module has a normal operating mode with a normal mode operating voltage. An interface is arranged to provide access to the secured module. A voltage monitoring unit is connected to the component and arranged to monitor an operating voltage Vsup of the component. An interface control unit is connected to the voltage monitoring unit and the interface. The interface control unit is arranged to inhibit access to the secured module through the interface when the operating voltage is below a predetermined secure access voltage level, the secure access voltage being higher than the normal mode operating voltage. | 06-05-2014 |
20140176220 | INTEGRATED CIRCUIT DEVICE, VOLTAGE REGULATOR MODULE AND METHOD FOR COMPENSATING A VOLTAGE SIGNAL - An integrated circuit device comprising at least one voltage supply module arranged to receive at an input thereof at least one control signal and to provide at an output thereof a voltage signal in accordance with the received at least one control signal, and at least one control module comprising at least one feedback loop between the output of the at least one voltage supply module and the input of the at least one voltage supply module, and arranged to generate the at least one control signal based at least partly on the voltage level of the voltage signal output by the at least one voltage supply module. The at least one control module is further arranged to receive at an input thereof at least one instantaneous indication of a load current at the output of the at least one voltage supply module, and apply a compensation to the at least one control signal provided to the at least one voltage supply module based at least partly on the received at least one indication of the load current. | 06-26-2014 |
20140253204 | CLOCK SIGNAL GENERATOR MODULE, INTEGRATED CIRCUIT, ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND METHOD THEREFOR - A clock signal generator module arranged to generate at least one clock signal for at least one functional module is described. The clock signal generator module comprises a first clock source component associated with at least one functional module, at least one further clock source component associated with the at least one functional module, and at least one management unit arranged to controllably enable signal generation by the first and at least one further clock source components in accordance with at least one operating characteristic of the at least one functional module associated therewith. | 09-11-2014 |
20140303804 | METHOD OF CONTROLLING A THERMAL BUDGET OF AN INTEGRATED CIRCUIT DEVICE, AN INTEGRATED CIRCUIT, A THERMAL CONTROL MODULE AND AN ELECTRONIC DEVICE THEREFOR - A method of controlling a thermal budget of an integrated circuit device is described. The method comprises obtaining a first junction temperature measurement value for the integrated circuit device at a first time instant, and a further junction temperature measurement value for the integrated circuit device at a further time instant. The method further comprises calculating a prospective junction temperature value for the integrated circuit device at a future time instant based at least partly on the first and further junction temperature measurement values; and configuring an operating condition of the integrated circuit device based at least partly on the calculated prospective junction temperature value. | 10-09-2014 |
20140325183 | INTEGRATED CIRCUIT DEVICE, ASYMMETRIC MULTI-CORE PROCESSING MODULE, ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND METHOD OF MANAGING EXECUTION OF COMPUTER PROGRAM CODE THEREFOR - An asymmetric multi-core processing module is described. The asymmetric multi-core processing module comprises at least one processing core of a first type, at least one processing core of at least one further type, and at least one core identifier configuration component. The at least one core identifier configuration component is arranged to enable dynamic configuration of a value of a core identifier of at least one of the processing cores of the first and at least one further types. | 10-30-2014 |
20140351781 | METHOD FOR PLACING OPERATIONAL CELLS IN A SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE - There is provided a method of placing a plurality of operational cells of a semiconductor device within a semiconductor layout, comprising determining timing data for each of the plurality of operational cells, determining switching activity from RTL or design constraints for each of the plurality of operational cells, determining power grid switch locations relative to each of the plurality of operational cells, deriving a cost function based upon the determined timing data, determined switching activity from RTL/design constraints and determined relative power grid switch locations and initially placing the plurality of operational cells according to the derived cost function. | 11-27-2014 |
20150015240 | METHOD OF DETECTING IRREGULAR CURRENT FLOW IN AN INTEGRATED CIRCUIT DEVICE AND APPARATUS THEREFOR - A method of detecting irregular high current flow within an integrated circuit (IC) device is described. The method comprises obtaining infrared (IR) emission information for the IC device, identifying at least one functional component within the IC device comprising a high current flow, based at least partly on the obtained IR emission information, obtaining IR emission information for at least one reference component within the IC device, and determining whether the high current flow of the at least one functional component comprises an irregular high current flow based at least partly on a comparison of respective IR emission information for the at least one functional component and the at least one reference component. | 01-15-2015 |
20150084417 | ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND METHOD FOR OPERATING A POWER SWITCH - An electronic device comprising a first power switch connectable or connected between a first voltage source and a load is proposed. The first power switch assumes a conductive state in response to a power-on request and a non-conductive state in response to a power-off request, for energizing and deenergizing the load, so that a voltage across the first power switch tends to a positive high level when the first power switch is in the non-conductive state and to a positive low level when the first power switch is in the conductive state. The device further comprises a second power switch connectable or connected between a second voltage source and the load. The second power switch assumes a conductive state in response to the power-on request and a non-conductive state when the voltage across the first power switch is below a defined switch-off threshold lower than the high level. The second voltage source thus assists the first voltage source in powering up the load. A method of operating the electronic device is also described. | 03-26-2015 |