Abstract: One use for delay adjustment circuit (32), coarse-grain delay offset circuit (34), and fine grain delay systhesis circuit (36) may be as part of a delay replication circuit (30) used to replicate the frequency versus voltage behavior of an integrated circuit (29). Also, a circuit (30) and method for determining optimal power and frequency metrics of integrated circuit (29) is also described. In addition, a method for determining programmable coefficients to replicate frequency and supply voltage correlation is described.

Abstract: In one embodiment, semiconductor device 10 comprises a diode which uses isolation regions (34, 16, and 13) and a plurality of dopant concentrations (30, 20, 24, and 26) which may be used to limit the parasitic current that is injected into the semiconductor substrate (12). Various biases on the isolation regions (34, 16, and 13) may be used to affect the behavior of semiconductor device (10). In addition, a conductive layer (28) may be formed overlying the junction between anode (42) and cathode (40). This conductive layer (28) may decrease the electric field in selected regions in order to increase the maximum voltage that may be applied to cathode (40).

Abstract: A circuit (10, 100) is used to perform voltage regulation. In one embodiment, a voltage regulator (11) is used in conjunction with an output transistor (24) to form a circuit (10) which operates to regulate the voltage drop from a first node (30) to a second node (28). This second node (28) may be used to provide power to circuitry (27). The areas of several transistors (20–25) in circuit (10) may be adjusted so that negative and positive temperature coefficients may be balanced such that the circuit (10) behaves as desired over a range of voltages and temperatures. Note that in one embodiment, circuit (10) is a 2-terminal device.

Abstract: A method for designing and routing circuitry having reduced cross talk. Early noise analysis (22) is performed after global routing (12) but before detailed routing (28) in order to repair problems (24) before detailed routing (28) is performed. In one embodiment, the early noise analysis (22) is preceded by probabilistic extraction (16). In one embodiment, probabilistic extraction (16) includes determining a probability of occurrence for each configuration in a predetermined set of configurations (54). Probabilistic capacitance extraction is then performed (56). A probabilistic distributed coupled RC network is constructed using the extracted capacitances (60). In one embodiment, probabilistic extraction (16) includes estimating aggressor strength (20) using the probabilistic distributed coupled RC network.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for interconnecting circuit portions (12, 14, 16, 18, 20) within a data processing system (10) using a master/slave interfaces (30–37, 134) which may be configured by way of configuration registers (21–28, 156, 100). External address generation circuitry (140) and internal address generation circuitry (142) may be used to generate externally used addresses and internally used addresses, respectively. A circuit portion (e.g. 20) may have a plurality of interfaces (37, 134) which may operate as a slave interface (e.g. 134) or as a master interface (e.g. 37). A same master/slave interface structure and protocol (e.g. 30, 140, 142, 144, 28, 152) may be duplicated and individually configured to be used to communicate among all of the circuit portions (12, 14, 16, 18, 20) within a data processing system (10).

Abstract: A digital test module (5) is provided for testing a phase locked loop circuit. The module (5) includes phase detection circuitry (10) for performing phase measurements of the phase locked loop circuit and analog test circuitry (20) for testing at least one analog element of the phase locked loop circuit. Frequency measurement circuitry (30) is provided for performing frequency measurements of the phase locked loop circuit, as is circuitry (40) for performing calibration and jitter measurements. In this way cycle-to-cycle and phase jitter measurements may be made. A calibration mechanism is provided allowing a process evaluation to be made and which allows the jitter data to be provided in a few seconds. The fully digital design facilitates easy manufacture and ready retargeting of the module to diverse applications and processes.

Abstract: A data processing (10) includes memory management circuitry (14) which allows additional control over the physical address (83) and over the address attributes (84) which are provided for use by data processing system (10). One use of this additional control over the physical address (83) and over the address attributes (84) is to avoid address translation failure and unintended modification of cache (13) and memory (18) system state during debugging.

Abstract: An interface implements a file system for supporting Java record and resource management between an operating system using a first programming language other than Java and a suite of Java applications. The interface provides a method for maintaining any number of files to be open in a manner transparent to the Java applications. Location information of a file is put in storage allocated for usage by Java code when a maximum number of open files is exceeded. A table is used to translate between file names of differing length and to identify directories in a manner to provide a hierarchical file system. An identifier is associated with a shortened Java file name in the table to quickly identify an operating system file with a shortened file name.

Abstract: A read allocation indicator (e.g. read allocation signal 30) is provided to storage circuitry (e.g. cache 22) to selectively determine whether read allocation will be performed for the read access. Read allocation may include modification of the information content of the cache (22) and/or modification of the read replacement algorithm state implemented by the read allocation circuitry (70) in cache (22). For certain types of debug operations, it may be very useful to provide a read allocation indicator that ensures that no unwanted modification are made to the storage circuitry during a read access. Yet other types of debug operations may want the storage circuitry to be modified in the standard manner when a read access occurs.

Abstract: Memory management in a data processing system (10) is achieved by using one or more timing bits (54) to specify a timing parameter of a memory (18, 19, 34). To implement this in some embodiments of the present invention, a memory array (32, 33, 42) is multiple-mapped in the physical memory map (70) of processor (12) and the address bits (54) associated with the multiple-mapping are used to directly control timing parameters of the memory arrays (32, 33, 42). This allows for flexible timing specifications to be derived quickly on an access by access basis without requiring any additional control storage overhead.

Abstract: A circuit device (15) is placed within an opening of a conductive layer (10) which is then partially encapsulated with an encapsulant (24) so that the active surface of the circuit device (15) is coplanar with the conductive layer (10). At least a portion of the conductive layer (10) may be used as a reference voltage plane (e.g. a ground plane). Additionally, a circuit device (115) may be placed on a conductive layer (100) such that an active surface of circuit device (115) is between conductive layer (100) and an opposite surface of circuit device (115). The conductive layer (100) has at least one opening (128) to expose the active surface of circuit device (115). The encapsulant (24, 126,326) may be electrically conductive or electrically non-conductive.

Abstract: A package device (10, 100) has one integrated circuit (22, 122) in a cavity (20, 120) in a package substrate (12, 122) and electrically coupled to one side (50, 150) of the package substrate. A second integrated circuit (32, 132) is mounted on another side of the package device and electrically coupled to that side as well. A third integrated circuit (38, 138) or more may be mounted on the second integrated circuit. Pads (16, 116, 116) useful for testing are present on both sides of the package substrate. The integrated circuits may be tested before final encapsulation to reduce the risk of providing completed packages with non-functional integrated circuits therein.

Abstract: An ESD protection circuit (81) and a method for providing ESD protection is provided. In some embodiments, an N-channel transistor (24), which can be ESD damaged, is selectively turned on and made conducting. The purpose of turning on the N-channel transistor (24) is to maximize the Vt1 of the N-channel transistor (24). Vt1 is the drain-to-source voltage point at which the parasitic bipolar action of the N-channel transistor (24) first occurs. In some embodiments, the ESD protection circuit (81) includes a diode (64) which provides an additional current path from the I/O pad 31 to a first power supply node (76).

Abstract: A method and apparatus for hierarchically restructuring at least a portion of a hierarchical database based on selected attributes. In one embodiment, a virtual cell (140) may use a virtual cell mapping function (130) to create a hierarchical netlist. Some embodiments may programmatically create a corresponding generated template to include in the netlist for each virtual cell. Some embodiments may generate multiple templates from the same cell. Some embodiments may generate multiple instances of different templates from the same instance in the database. One application of the present invention is for use in circuit simulation.

Abstract: In one embodiment, circuit device (15) is placed within an opening of a conductive layer (10) which is then partially encapsulated with an encapsulant (24) so that the active surface of the circuit device (15) is coplanar with the conductive layer (10). In this embodiment, at least a portion of the conductive layer (10) may be used as a reference voltage plane (e.g. a ground plane). In one embodiment, circuit device (115) is placed on a conductive layer (100) such that an active surface of circuit device (115) is between conductive layer (100) and an opposite surface of circuit device (115). In this embodiment, conductive layer (100) has at least one opening (128) to expose the active surface of circuit device (115). The encapsulant (24, 126, 326) may be electrically conductive for some embodiments, and electrically non-conductive for other embodiments.

Abstract: The present invention relates generally to data processors and more specifically, to data processors having an adaptive priority controller. One embodiment relates to a method for prioritizing requests in a data processor (12) having a bus interface unit (32). The method includes receiving a first request from a first bus requesting resource (e.g. 30) and a second request from a second bus requesting resource (e.g. 28), and using a threshold corresponding to the first or second bus requesting resource to prioritize the first and second requests. The first and second bus requesting resources may be a push buffer (28) for a cache, a write buffer (30), or an instruction prefetch buffer (24). According to one embodiment, the bus interface unit (32) includes a priority controller (34) that receives the first and second requests, assigns the priority, and stores the threshold in a threshold register (66).

Abstract: The present invention relates generally methods and apparatus for controlling current demand in an integrated circuit. One embodiment relates to a method that includes detecting if a supply voltage overshoot or a undershoot is present or anticipated, and if detected, controlling current consumed by a power consumption circuitry to ensure that the power supply voltage remains within acceptable levels. Other embodiments relate to an integrated circuit having a capacitive decoupling structure, power consumption circuitry, and power consumption control circuitry for controlling current consumed by at least a portion of the power consumption circuitry. Therefore, embodiments of the invention relate to monitoring and controlling power consumption (i.e. current demand) of a power consumption circuit (such as an integrated circuit) in order to prevent devastating supply voltage undershoots, overshoots, and oscillations.

Abstract: A bus arbiter (34) monitors characteristics associated with the type of information that is transferred via a global data bus (12) during burst transactions of information. A user-controlled arbitration policy register (56) may be programmed with values that are decoded to control whether interruption by a requesting bus master are permitted. Various factors can be used to determine interrupt permissions. Examples of such factors include the type of requesting device, whether a burst transaction is bounded or unbounded, whether a transaction is a read or a write of a system memory and the identity of the particular device requesting bus mastership.

Abstract: Single-ended write circuitry (18) in storage circuit (19) includes transistor (35) which provides aid in transitioning latch node (51) from a logic state “1” to a logic state “0” when latch node (50) is being transitioned from a logic state “0” to a logic state “1”. Similarly, single-ended write circuitry (18) includes transistor (37) which provides aid in transitioning latch node (50) from a logic state “1” to a logic state “0” when latch node (51) is being transitioned from a logic state “0” to a logic state “1”. In some embodiments of the present invention, the effect of transistor (35) may be selectively applied to latch (16). A device, such as transistor (34), may be used to selectively negate the effect of transistor (35). In some embodiments of the present invention, the effect of transistor (37) may be selectively applied to latch (16).

Abstract: A system (10) implements user programmable addressing modes in response to control information contained within an input address. Encoded control information stored in a plurality of user programmed address permutation control registers (70-72) is used to determine what bit values are used to replace predetermined bits of the input address to selectively create a corresponding permutated address. Since no modification to a processor's pipeline is required, various permutation addressing modes may be user-defined and implemented using either a general-purpose processor or a specialized processor.