Abstract: The electronic circuit executes operations dependent on secret information. Power supply current dependency on the secret information is cloaked by drawing additional power supply current. A plurality of processing circuits (102, 106) executes respective parts of the operations dependent on the secret information. An activity monitor circuit (12a, b, 14), coupled to receive pairs of processing signals coming into and out of respective ones of the processing circuits, derive activity information from each pair of processing signals. The activity monitoring circuit (12a, b, 14) generates a combined activity signal indicative of a sum of power supply currents that will be consumed by the processing circuits (102, 106) dependent on the processing signals.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a circuit arrangement and method for controlling power supply in an integrated circuit wherein at least one working parameter of at least one electrically isolated circuit region (10) is monitored, and the conductivity of a variable resistor means is locally controlled so as to individually adjust power supply for each of said at least two electrically isolated circuit regions (10) based on the at least one monitored working parameter. Thereby, a fast and simple control functionality with low area overhead can be provided.

Abstract: A user of a mobile client requests electronic content information for being downloaded via a data network. The client first receives a semantically summarized version of the requested content information. If the downloading is prematurely interrupted, the user has at least a meaningful summary available.

Abstract: In an example embodiment, a clock generation circuit comprises two programmable ring oscillators arranged and configured to operate in a mutually exclusive manner, and a variable programmable delay element (not shown). An input programming pattern is provided as an input to the oscillating circuit, the programming pattern providing data representative of the sequence of frequencies at which the clock signal is required to be generated. The outputs of both the oscillators are connected to a clock switch (16), from which the generated clock signal is output. When a request for a change of frequency is received, the currently idle oscillator is first activated with the next required frequency, the output of the currently operative oscillator is then gated when the clock signal thereof goes low. Next, the previously gated output of oscillator is un-gated when its output goes low, and then oscillator is de-activated.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a circuit arrangement and method for controlling power supply in an integrated circuit wherein at least one working parameter of at least one electrically isolated circuit region (10) is monitored, and the conductivity of a variable resistor means is locally controlled so as to individually adjust power supply for each of said at least two electrically isolated circuit regions (10) based on the at least one monitored working parameter. Thereby, a fast and simple control functionality with low area overhead can be provided.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method and circuit arrangement for controlling performance of an integrated circuit in response to a monitored performance indicator, wherein power supply of the integrated circuit is controlled based on said performance indicator. At least one of a noise level of the controlled power supply and a clock frequency generated in said integrated circuit is monitored and a respective control signal is fed back to the controlling function if the checking result is not within a predetermined range. Thereby, an simple and easily extendable automatic adaptation to process variations can be achieved.

Abstract: A digital system 1 comprises receiving means (5) for receiving one or more performance indicators or parameters from software (6) controlling the execution of an application (3). Based on the performance indicators received by the receiving means (5), a tuning circuit (7) is provided for tuning the frequency (f), supply voltage (Vdd) and/or the transistor threshold voltage (Vb) of the digital system (1). In addition, pipeline configuration means (8) are provided for configuring the pipeline of the digital system (1) based on a pipeline depth determined by selecting means (10). The selecting means (10) is configured to select the pipeline depth (Pd) based on the frequency (f), supply voltage (Vdd), transistor threshold voltage (Vb), and according to whether the application requires maximum throughput or minimum latency.

Abstract: A processing method and apparatus for processing an information is based on a sequence of instructions, where a repeated sub-sequence is detected in the sequence of instructions and an allocation between a processing resource and the repeated sub-sequence is determined based on an index information indicating the repetition frequency of the repeated sub-sequence. Thus, a combination of a scalable signal processor with automatic task distribution is provided, where the number of memory accesses can be reduced, as the repeated sub-sequence can be allocated to external processing units, which are correspondingly programmed or which use their embedded memory.

Abstract: A method of determining a maximum optimum clock frequency at which a digital processing system can operate, the method comprising the steps of: generating a clock signal at an initial frequency; increasing said frequency in a step-wise manner and determining the operation of said system each of a selected number of frequencies, until a clock frequency is identified at which said processor does not operate correctly; and identifying a maximum clock frequency at which said system can operate correctly; characterized in that: said maximum clock frequency comprises the frequency immediately previous to the one identified as being one at which said system does not operate correctly; and in that a timing monitor is provided for determining whether or not said system can operate within system timing constraints at each frequency, thereby indicating whether or not said system operates correctly at the respective frequency.

Abstract: A method for coding information in an electronic circuit and an electronic circuit for coding information uses at least two electrically coupled signal paths (X0, X1). Cross-talk between two electrically coupled signal paths (X0, X1) can be utilized to perform logical computation. A signal is propagating on two signal paths (X0, X1) in the form of either rising or falling transitions. The relative delay between the transitions on the two paths (X0, X1) determines the logic value of the output signal (X) to be produced. If the signal on the first paths (X0) propagates faster than the signal on the second path (X1), an output signal (X) having a first logic value is produced. If the signal on the second path (X1) propagates faster than the signal on the first path (X0). an output signal (X) having a second logic value is produced.

Abstract: An integrated circuit 1 comprises a timing closure monitoring circuit 2. The timing closure monitoring circuit 2 comprises a duplicate path 19, having the same characteristics as a logic path 3 being monitored. The duplicate path 19 receives a pulsed reference signal 23 from a reference generating unit (RGU) 24. The pulsed reference signal 23 is synchronized with the clock signal 13, and passed through the duplicate path 19 to a reference checking unit (RCU) 25. In a normal mode of operation in which timing closure is guaranteed, the clock signal 13 will sample the pulsed reference signal 23, such that no interrupt signal is generated on the interrupt line 33. However, in the situation where the reference check unit 25 is clocked by the clock signal 13 prior to the pulsed reference signal 23 being received via the duplicate path 19, an interrupt signal is generated on the interrupt line 33, indicating that timing closure cannot be guaranteed.

Abstract: The present invention relates to real-time adaptive control for best Integrated Circuit (IC) performance. The adaptive behavior is carried out on a local basis. The system is partitioned into different islands (30). Each island (30) is controlled and its working conditions are modified depending on some parameters. The remainder of the chip is controlled as well, depending on other parameters. This requires that each island (30) has a local controller (36) communicating with a global controller (42). The main control parameters are e.g. supply voltage, threshold voltage and clock frequency.

Abstract: Processor (100) has a plurality of registers (120) for storing instructions for execution by the plurality of execution units (160). The plurality of registers (120) are coupled to the plurality of execution units (160) via distribution means (140). Distribution means (140) have a plurality of dispatch units (144) coupled to the plurality of execution units (160) and a reroutable network, e.g. a data communication bus (142), coupling the plurality of execution units (120) to the plurality of dispatch units (144). The data communication bus (142) is controlled by control unit (148). Dispatch units (144) are arranged to detect dedicated instructions in the instruction flow, which signal the beginning of an inactive period of an execution unit (160a, 160b, 160c, 160d) in the plurality of execution units (160).

Abstract: The present invention relates to a control system and method of controlling at least one performance parameter of an integrated circuit. The at least performance parameter is controlled based on a control word. However, the signaled control information is reduced to a binary control signal simply instructing increase or decrease of said at least one performance parameter. This is achieved by modifying the control word in accordance with the binary control signal, e.g., by using the binary control signal to define a binary value shifted into a shift register means (31). Thereby, a fast and simple control functionality can be provided, which does not require any further hardware to adjust the performance parameter.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method and circuit arrangement for controlling performance of an integrated circuit in response to a monitored performance indicator, wherein power supply of the integrated circuit is controlled based on said performance indicator. At least one of a noise level of the controlled power supply and a clock frequency generated in said integrated circuit is monitored and a respective control signal is fed back to the controlling function if the checking result is not within a predetermined range. Thereby, an simple and easily extendable automatic adaptation to process variations can be achieved.

Abstract: During execution of a program of computer instructions, the execution of branch instructions is detected, and in response, the activity of processing circuitry during execution of instructions following a branch instruction is measured. Respective information about the measured activity is recorded for each of a plurality of branch instructions. The measured activity is later used to adapt the power consumption mode of the processing circuitry after encountering the respective branch instructions.

Abstract: A user of a mobile client requests electronic content information for being downloaded via a data network. The client first receives a semantically summarized version of the requested content information. If the downloading is prematurely interrupted, the user has at least a meaningful summary available.

Abstract: A method of determining a maximum optimum clock frequency at which a digital processing system can operate, the method comprising the steps of: generating a clock signal at an initial frequency; increasing said frequency in a step-wise manner and determining the operation of said system each of a selected number of frequencies, until a clock frequency is identified at which said processor does not operate correctly; and identifying a maximum clock frequency at which said system can operate correctly; characterized in that: said maximum clock frequency comprises the frequency immediately previous to the one identified as being one at which said system does not operate correctly; and in that a timing monitor is provided for determining whether or not said system can operate within system timing constraints at each frequency, thereby indicating whether or not said system operates correctly at the respective frequency.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a data processing circuitry and method of processing an input data pattern and out-putting an output data pattern after a processing delay which depends on a processing activity of the data processing circuitry, wherein the processing delay is estimated based on the input pattern and the processing is controlled in response to the estimated processing delay. The processing control may be a power control based on an activity monitoring or a clock control in a pipeline structure. Thereby, an efficient solution is provided to derive the current activity of the processing circuitry in order to dynamically adapt its operating conditions to its demands.

Abstract: A clock generation circuit comprising two programmable ring oscillators (10, 20) arranged and configured to operate in a mutually exclusive manner, and a variable programmable delay element (not shown). An input programming pattern (14) is provided as an input to the oscillating circuit, the programming pattern (14) providing data representative of the sequence of frequencies at which the clock signal is required to be generated. The outputs of both the oscillators (10, 20) are connected to a clock switch (16), from which the generated clock signal (18) is output. When a request for a change of frequency is received, the currently idle oscillator (20) is first activated with the next required frequency, the output of the currently operative oscillator (10) is then gated when the clock signal thereof goes low. Next, the previously gated output of oscillator (20) is ungated when its output goes low, and then oscillator (10) is de-activated.