Abstract: A constant current LED driver comprising an LED driver to supply constant current to an LED circuit provided with a protection element, an open loop sensor to sense the open loop of the LED circuit and a clamping control to maintain the voltage in the LED circuit at a predetermined level. The open loop sensor may be a high voltage detector. The clamping control controls the power supplied to the LED circuit in response to the detection signals of the open loop sensor. In one embodiment, the clamping control controls the power supplied to the LED circuit according to the power of the detection signals.

Abstract: An Application Specific Integrated Circuit (“ASIC”) (10, 30 and 40), which includes at least one hardware, non-programmable functional block (12, 14, 16, 18, 22, 32, 44, 46 and 48), also includes a programmable logic block (“PLB”) (26). The PLB (26) is electrically programmable for performing at least one function that complements a function performed using the hardware, non-programmable functional block (12, 14, 16, 18, 22, 32, 44, 46 and 48). The presence of the PLB (26) in the ASIC providing system builders with an opportunity to readily differentiate products within their respective product lines by adding particular functions to the ASIC, and to also functionally differentiate among various products offered by competing system builders.

Abstract: An application specific field programmable gate array ("ASFPGA") includes at least two fixed functional units in a single IC chip. Depending upon a specific application for the ASFPGA, the fixed functional units may include one or more bus interfaces, event timers, an interrupt controller, a Direct Memory Access ("DMA") controller, system timers, a real-time clock, a Random Access Memory ("RAM"), a clock synthesizer, a RAM Digital-to-Analog Converter ("DAC"), a display interface, a register file, a compressed image encoder/decoder ("CODEC"), or similar functional units. The ASFPGA also includes a general purpose field programmable gate array ("FPGA"). The FPGA is configurable to effect a specific digital logic circuit interconnection between fixed functional units. After the FPGA has been configured, the fixed functional units together with the FPGA perform all the functions specified for a particular ASIC design.