Circuit technique for high speed low power data transfer bus
First Claim
1. A method of controlling the voltage swing in a circuit for transferring data to a data bus, comprising:
- (a) coupling a pass transistor with the bus;
(b) coupling a discharge transistor between the pass transistor and ground;
(c) coupling an inverter between the discharge transistor and the pass transistor, the inverter and the discharge transistor forming a signal node; and
(d) selectably driving the pass transistor gate with the inverter in response to a signal node voltage value.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A high speed low power data transfer bus circuit that reduces bus power consumption by imposing a limited, controlled voltage swing on the associated data bus. In one embodiment, an inverter is coupled with a pMOS pass transistor and an nMOS discharge transistor, and the combination is coupled with a data bus. The discharge transistor and pass transistor can be programmed to provide a preselected bus operational characteristics. In another embodiment, multiple nMOS discharge transistors can be coupled to the data bus via the pass transistor, with each of the discharge transistors being selectively programmed to provide additional preselected bus operational characteristics, multiple, programmable discharge transistors, thus selectably imposing encoded and multilevel logic signals on the data bus. In another embodiment, a bidirectional data transfer bus circuit couples two data busses while imposing a limited, controlled voltage swing during the transfer. One preferred embodiment couples a first data bus and a second data bus with cross-linked inverters. Interposed between the inverters, and its associated bus, is a respective pMOS pass transistor. Also, coupled between each input node and ground, is a signal discharge transistor, preferably nMOS, which facilitates data transfer between the buses. Each of the inverters is coupled with a clocked charge/discharge circuit, preferably using a common clock signal.
11 Citations
13 Claims
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1. A method of controlling the voltage swing in a circuit for transferring data to a data bus, comprising:
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(a) coupling a pass transistor with the bus; (b) coupling a discharge transistor between the pass transistor and ground; (c) coupling an inverter between the discharge transistor and the pass transistor, the inverter and the discharge transistor forming a signal node; and (d) selectably driving the pass transistor gate with the inverter in response to a signal node voltage value. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method of controlling voltage swing in a data bus transfer circuit for transferring data between a first data bus and a second data bus, comprising:
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(a) coupling a first pass transistor between the first data bus and a first inverter, the coupling of the first pass transistor and the first inverter forming a first signal node; (b) coupling a second pass transistor between the second data bus and a second inverter, the coupling of the second pass transistor and the second inverter forming a second signal node; (c) coupling a first signal discharge transistor between the first signal node and ground; and (d) coupling a second signal discharge transistor between the first signal node and ground, wherein the first inverter transfers a signal representative of first data on the first data bus to the second signal discharge transistor and the second inverter transfers a signal representative of second data on the second data bus to the first signal discharge transistor. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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Specification