INITIAL OPERATIONAL MODE FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUIT

• US 20160231806A1
• Filed: 09/03/2015
• Published: 08/11/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/09/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NXP USA, Inc. (NXP Semiconductors NV)
• Original Assignee: Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. (NXP Semiconductors NV)
• Inventors: GU, WEN, Cui, Jing, Zhang, Shayan
• Granted Patent: US 9,612,653 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/24 Resetting means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/30 Means for acting in the event of power-supply failure or interruption, e.g. power-supply fluctuations for resetting only G06F1/24
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/324 by lowering clock frequency
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3243 Power saving in microcontroller unit
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3296 by lowering the supply or operating voltage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4418 Suspend and resume; Hibernate and awake
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

An integrated circuit (IC) and associated method support using a pre-use configuration for determining an initial/preferred operational mode for the IC from plural operational modes that may be entered following power-up cycles of the IC. The initial/preferred operational mode can be determined after the design phase of the IC so that, during IC operation, wasted power or delay are not incurred by first requiring that the IC power up in a default operational mode and subsequently run executive code to reprogram the IC to enter an operational mode that is preferred for the application for which the IC is being used by the IC integrator/user. The configurations determine clock frequencies and/or power levels for core processing and/or peripheral modules and allow the same IC design/die to be targeted to a spectrum of different power usage/performance applications by the integrator/user.

Claims

1. An integrated circuit (IC), comprising:

a controller module; and

a plurality of component modules, each capable of operating in a plurality of different power modes, wherein the IC is designed to be selectively pre-use configured into any one of a plurality of different selectable power-on reset modes, the power-on reset modes including;

a first power-on reset mode corresponding to the plurality of component modules operating in a first set of power modes; and

a second power-on reset mode corresponding to the plurality of component modules operating in a second set of power modes different from the first set of power modes, such that;

if the IC is pre-use configured with the first power-on reset mode, then, when the IC is powered up following the pre-use configuration, the controller module causes the component modules to operate directly in the first set of power modes; and

if the IC is pre-use configured with the second power-on reset mode, then, when the IC is powered up following pre-use configuration, the controller module causes the component modules to operate directly in the second set of power modes.

2. The IC of claim 1 before being pre-use configured to have a selected power-on reset mode.

3. The IC of claim 1 after being pre-use configured to have a selected power-on reset mode.

4. The IC of claim 3, wherein, after the pre-use-configured IC is powered up the IC can be programmed to change the selected pre-use-configured power-on reset mode to a third power-on reset mode corresponding to the plurality of component modules operating in a third set of power modes, such that, upon a subsequent power-on reset of the IC, the controller causes the component modules to operate in the third set of power modes.

5. The IC of claim 1, wherein if the IC is pre-use configured with a power-on reset mode, then, when the IC is powered up following the pre-use configuration, it will subsequently selectively shut down portions of the controller module to save power.

6. The IC of claim 1, wherein, until the pre-use-configured selected power-on reset mode is changed by programming the IC, the IC boots up in the pre-use configured selected power-on reset mode at each power-on reset of the IC.

7. The IC of claim 1, wherein:

the first set of power modes comprises a first set of voltage levels and clock characteristics for the plurality of component modules; and

the second set of power modes comprises a second set of voltage levels and clock characteristics for the plurality of component modules, wherein at least one of a voltage level and a clock characteristic of the second set of power modes is different from at least one of a corresponding voltage level and a corresponding clock characteristic of the first set of power modes.

8. The IC of claim 7, wherein the clock characteristics comprise at least one of clock frequency and a clock gating.

9. The IC of claim 1, wherein the IC is pre-use configurable by selectively configuring hardware within the IC.

10. The IC of claim 1, wherein the IC is pre-use configurable by selectively burning one or more fuses within the IC.

11. The IC of claim 1, wherein the IC is pre-use configurable by selectively configuring non-volatile memory of the IC.

12. The IC of claim 1, wherein the IC is pre-use configurable by selectively configuring external wiring to the IC.

13. A method, comprising:

providing the IC of claim 1; and

pre-use configuring the IC with a selected one of the different selectable power-on reset modes to provide a pre-use-configured IC.

14. A method, comprising:

providing the pre-use-configured IC of claim 13; and

powering up the pre-use-configured IC, wherein following the powering up of the IC, the pre-use-configured IC operates directly in the selected one of the different selectable power-on reset modes.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

programming the powered-on, pre-use-configured IC to have a subsequent power-on reset mode that is different from the pre-use-configured selected power-on reset mode.