Abstract: Systems and methods for preserving a decoupling capacitor's charge during low power operation of a logic circuit. An electronic circuit may include: a main voltage regulator coupled to a supply voltage terminal and configured to apply a first regulated voltage across a capacitor coupled in parallel with a logic circuit; a low power regulator coupled to the supply voltage terminal and configured to apply a second regulated voltage across the logic circuit; and a control circuit coupled to the low power regulator. The control circuit may be configured to: during a first mode of operation, allow the main voltage regulator to apply the first regulated voltage to the logic circuit, and, during a second mode of operation, allow the low power regulator to apply the second regulated voltage to the logic circuit and decouple the capacitor from the logic circuit while the low power regulator applies the second regulator voltage.

Abstract: Systems and methods for preserving a decoupling capacitor's charge during low power operation of a logic circuit. An electronic circuit may include: a main voltage regulator coupled to a supply voltage terminal and configured to apply a first regulated voltage across a capacitor coupled in parallel with a logic circuit; a low power regulator coupled to the supply voltage terminal and configured to apply a second regulated voltage across the logic circuit; and a control circuit coupled to the low power regulator. The control circuit may be configured to: during a first mode of operation, allow the main voltage regulator to apply the first regulated voltage to the logic circuit, and, during a second mode of operation, allow the low power regulator to apply the second regulated voltage to the logic circuit and decouple the capacitor from the logic circuit while the low power regulator applies the second regulator voltage.

Abstract: An integrated circuit includes a primary initiator domain (ID) circuit including having a processor core, a responder domain (RD) control circuit, and a reset controller. Secondary ID circuits, each include a processor core and a reset controller. RD circuitry is coupled to communicate with the primary ID circuit and the secondary ID circuits and includes RD resource circuits. The RD control circuit is configured to allocate each of the RD resource circuits to a first initiator domain consisting of the primary ID circuit or one of the secondary ID circuits, and when one of the secondary ID circuits enters a reset mode of operation, the RD resource circuit allocated to the one of the secondary ID circuits enters a reset while the remaining RD resource circuits are not affected by the reset.

Abstract: An integrated circuit includes a primary initiator domain (ID) circuit including having a processor core, a responder domain (RD) control circuit, and a reset controller. Secondary ID circuits, each include a processor core and a reset controller. RD circuitry is coupled to communicate with the primary ID circuit and the secondary ID circuits and includes RD resource circuits. The RD control circuit is configured to allocate each of the RD resource circuits to a first initiator domain consisting of the primary ID circuit or one of the secondary ID circuits, and when one of the secondary ID circuits enters a reset mode of operation, the RD resource circuit allocated to the one of the secondary ID circuits enters a reset while the remaining RD resource circuits are not affected by the reset.

Abstract: A temperature compensated, auto tunable, frequency locked loop oscillator includes, in one embodiment, an oscillator configured to generate a clock-signal with a frequency fclk based on a control voltage vc, and a frequency-to-voltage (f/v) converter coupled to the oscillator, which is configured to generate a first voltage vfb with a magnitude based on frequency fclk. A controller is also included and coupled between the oscillator and the f/v converter. The controller is configured to control the magnitude of the control voltage vc based on the first voltage vfb.

Abstract: An integrated circuit includes a first processing domain configured to run a first operating system and a second processing domain configured to run a second operating system that is different than the first operating system. The integrated circuit further includes a time stamp timer circuit in the first processing domain configured to provide a first time stamp value to the first processing domain and an adjusted second time stamp value to the second processing domain. The time stamp timer circuit includes a timer adjust circuit configured to synchronize the adjusted second time stamp value when a power up signal is received by the time stamp timer circuit from the second processing domain.

Abstract: A method is provided for protecting execution of a program against a fault injection attack. In one embodiment, a portion of the program includes multiple substantially logically identical conditional operations that are executed in a sequence. An attacker must successfully inject a fault at each instance of the conditional operations to cause the program execution to reach the final state. The multiple conditional operations may ask the same question differently so that the glitch will not cause the same response from both conditional operations. Also, the program portion may make advancement from one state to the next contingent on arriving at the next state from a valid previous state. The described program portions with multiple instances of a conditional operation make a program execution more resistant to a glitch type of fault injection attack.

Abstract: Various exemplary embodiments relate to an event-driven processing unit (EPU) and a related method. A microprocessor may halt processing instructions when it executes a halting command. Thereafter, an EPU clock may stop its processing cycle and therefore halt microprocessor execution until it receives a start signal by a pattern detector. The pattern detector may use a plurality of bit slices to monitor a plurality of external inputs for the occurrence of events specified by the user. Some embodiments may also allow the user to check functioning by skipping upcoming instructions if a monitored event did not occur. By halting the EPU clock and the execution flow of the microprocessor, the event-driven microprocessor minimizes waste associated with executing a main control loop while waiting for a monitored event to occur. This may save processing capacity, memory, and power associated with continually running the main control loop.

Abstract: Flash-type memory access and control is facilitated (e.g., as random-access memory). According to an example embodiment, an interface communicates with and controls a flash memory circuit over a peripheral interface bus. The interface uses a FIFO buffer coupled to receive data from and store data for the flash memory circuit and to provide access to the stored data. An interface controller communicates with the flash memory circuit via the peripheral interface bus to initialize the flash memory circuit and to access data thereto, in response to requests from a processor. In some applications, the flash memory circuit is initialized by sending commands to it. The interface may be placed into a read-only mode in which data in the flash memory is accessed as part of main (computer) processor memory, using the FIFO to buffer data from the flash.

Abstract: Flash-type memory access and control is facilitated (e.g., as random-access memory). According to an example embodiment, an interface communicates with and controls a flash memory circuit over a peripheral interface bus. The interface uses a FIFO buffer coupled to receive data from and store data for the flash memory circuit and to provide access to the stored data. An interface controller communicates with the flash memory circuit via the peripheral interface bus to initialize the flash memory circuit and to access data thereto, in response to requests from a processor. In some applications, the flash memory circuit is initialized by sending commands to it. The interface may be placed into a read-only mode in which data in the flash memory is accessed as part of main (computer) processor memory, using the FIFO to buffer data from the flash.

Abstract: Various exemplary embodiments relate to an event-driven microprocessor and a related method. A microprocessor may halt processing instructions when it executes a halting command. Thereafter, an EPU clock may stop its processing cycle and therefore halt microprocessor execution until it receives a start signal by a pattern detector. The pattern detector may use a plurality of bit slices to monitor a plurality of external inputs for the occurrence of events specified by the user. Some embodiments may also allow the user to check functioning by skipping upcoming instructions if a monitored event did not occur. By halting the EPU clock and the execution flow of the microprocessor, the event-driven microprocessor minimizes waste associated with executing a main control loop while waiting for a monitored event to occur. This may save processing capacity, memory, and power associated with continually running the main control loop.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus suitable for rapid creation and configuration of microcontroller products, which include a microcontroller or similar computational resource, and configurable logic devices are described. Various embodiments of the present invention allow development of new microcontroller-based products and product families in a rapid and cost-effective manner, thereby enabling early entry of such products into the marketplace. An existing microcontroller block and existing configurable logic devices are combined to form a unique product, wherein the microcontroller block is operable to configure the configurable logic devices to form the desired unique hardware characteristics of the microcontroller-based product. The microcontroller block configures the configurable logic devices when the product is reset, and/or when a power-up condition is recognized.