Benchmarq Microelectronics, Inc.

Other

Frederick Gaudenz Broell

Jehangir Parvereshi

Stephen Paul Sacarisen

A realtime clock integrated circuit includes a memory (30) that has a plurality of addressable locations therein. The memory (30) has two portions, a lower portion and an upper portion. The lower portion is addressed by the seven least significant bits which are extracted from an input address bus (50). The seven address bits are latched in an address latch (54) for input to the address input of the memory (30). An eighth most significant address bit is received from an external line (64), which is attached to a separate bus on a personal computer other than that of the bus (50). The eighth most significant bit is latched in an address latch (62) for presentation to the most significant bit of the address input memory (30). When this most significant bit is high, the upper portion of the memory (30) is accessed.

Realtime clock with page mode addressing

A battery charge controller (50) is provided which includes a PWM switch controller (36) that is operable to control a switching regulator to supply current to a battery (10) in either a current regulation mode or a voltage regulation mode. A charge control (40) is operable to control the charging operation such that multiple modes of operation are selectable by an external programmable pin. The three modes provided are: a constant voltage mode, a dual-current mode and a pulse-current mode. The constant voltage mode provides for a conditioning state followed by a bulk charging state followed by a maintenance state. In the bulk charging state, current regulation is provided at a maximum current until a charged condition occurs, at which time the charger is placed in a voltage regulation mode. In the dual-current mode, the system is switched between two current regulation levels, a high current regulation level for fast charging to a substantially fully charged state of around eighty percent of rated full charge after which a low current pulsed operation is maintained during a maintenance mode. In the pulsed-current mode, current regulation is performed at the maximum current until the substantially full charged state is detected, after which the cell voltage is allowed to float until it falls below a nominal cell voltage, at which time rapid charging is again performed at a current regulated level. In this last mode, a substantially fully charged state is determined by examining the gradient of the voltage change of the charging profile to determine when a sustained negative value occurs, this indicating the onset of an increase in the pressure and temperature of the cell.

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Plano, TX, United States of America

Frederick Gaudenz Broell