Abstract: A microelectronic device according to the present invention is made up of two or more functional units, which are all disposed on a single chip, or die. The present invention works on the strategy that all of the functional units on the die are not, and do not need to be operational at a given time in the execution of a computer program that is controlling the microelectronic device. The present invention on a very rapid basis (typically a half clock cycle), therefore, turns on and off the functional units of the microelectronic device in accordance with the requirements of the program being executed. This power down can be achieved by one of three techniques; turning off clock inputs to the functional units, interrupting the supply of power to the functional units, or deactivating input signals to the functional units.

Abstract: The present invention provides a programmable generic read channel control device and circuitry for generating an output signal to control read/write operations. The programmable generic read channel control device includes a set of extension timer, a set of configuration registers, a set of AND gates, and an OR gate. The extension timers are programmed to generate a set of pulses of programmable width in response to a read gate and write gate signal. Each of the pulses is defined by a leading edge pulse and a trailing edge pulse. The set of extension timers includes a short write gate extension timer configured to generate a write gate short leading edge pulse and a write gate short trailing edge pulse defining a write gate short pulse width. The configuration registers store a set of configuration data for the pulses with each configuration register storing one configuration data for either a leading edge or a trailing edge pulse of one of the pulses.