Intel Corporation

Mingming Xu

Stefano Giaconi

Stefano Giacconi

Hongjiang Song

Itamar Fredi Levin

Dror Lazar

Wei Wei Wang

Kevan A Lillie

Mohit Verma

Tomer Fael

Vijayalakshmi Ramachandran

Dima Hammed

Elior Segev

Pankaj Dudulwar

Techniques and mechanisms for determining a reference voltage which is to be provided with an integrated circuit (IC) die. In an embodiment, the IC die comprises a resistor, and a hardware interface which accommodates coupling of the IC die to a test unit. The test unit provides functionality to perform an evaluation of a resistance of the resistor, wherein said resistance is indicative of the respective resistances of one or more other resistors of the IC die. Based on the evaluation, the test unit provides to the IC die an indication of a scale factor, wherein the reference voltage is generated based on the scale factor. In another embodiment, the IC die further comprises an amplifier circuit which receives the reference voltage, wherein a variable resistance circuit of the IC die is configured based on an output of the amplifier circuit.

Provisioning a reference voltage based on an evaluation of a pseudo-precision resistor of an IC die

Techniques and mechanisms for a clock recovery circuit to generate a cyclical signal based on data signals which are susceptible to circuit switching jitter. In an embodiment, a clock recovery circuit comprises switch circuitry which receives a first signal representing a logical combination of multiple pulsed signals (which, in turn, are each based on a different respective differential data signal). The switch circuitry provides to latch circuitry of the clock recovery circuit a second signal based on the first signal. The latch circuitry generates a cyclical signal based on the second signal, and transitions the switch circuitry between an open-circuit state and a closed-circuit state. In another embodiment, the latch circuitry implements a predetermined and configurable time period between a transition of the cyclical signal and a next subsequent logic state transition of the cyclical signal.

Clock recovery circuit and method of operating same

Some embodiments include apparatuses and methods having a receiver unit included in a die and a measurement unit included in the die. The receiver unit includes a sampler to sample a first signal based on timing of a first clock signal to generate a second signal. The measurement unit is arranged to sample the first signal based on timing of a second clock signal to provide information for generation of a graph presenting an eye scan of the first signal. The second clock signal has a frequency asynchronous with a frequency of the first clock signal.

Asynchronous on-die eye scope

Described are phase adjustment circuits for clock and data recovery circuits (CDRs). Systems and apparatuses may include an input to receive a serial data signal, an edge data tap to sample transition edges in the serial data signal for generating a data edge detection signal, a CDR circuit including a phase detector to receive the serial data signal and the data edge detection signal, and to output a phase lead/lag signal indicating the phase difference between the serial data signal and the data edge detection signal, and a phase adjustment circuit to generate phase lead/lag adjustment data. The CDR circuit is to output a recovered clock signal based, at least in part, on the phase lead/lag signal adjusted by the phase lead/lag adjustment data.

Phase adjustment circuit for clock and data recovery circuit

Various embodiments are generally directed to techniques for testing a receiver incorporated into an IC to receive a bitstream. An apparatus includes a precharge component to set a VGA to output a differential bias voltage; a taps component to set a tap to form a feedback loop that extends from an output of the bit slicer to the input of the bit slicer through a delay circuit and the tap, the tap to output a first differential voltage to the input of the bit slicer to invert a polarity of a sum of differential voltages at the input of the bit slicer to enable oscillation of the bit slicer, the sum generated from at least the differential bias voltage and the first differential voltage; and a capture component coupled to the output of the bit slicer to capture a series of bit values therefrom. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Techniques for testing receiver operation

An exemplary receiver equalizer includes a first decision feedback equalizer (DFE) sampler coupled to a summer, the first DFE to latch an equalized output of the summer. The first branch includes a second DFE sampler coupled to the first DFE sampler, the second DFE to latch an output of the first DFE sampler. The first branch includes a third DFE sampler coupled to the second DFE sampler, the third DFE to latch an output of the second DFE sampler. The summer coupled to the first, second, and third DFE samplers of the first branch, the summer to integrate the output of said DFE samplers, the received signal, and equalized outputs from one or more other branches, wherein the integrating occurs over a plurality of unit intervals (UIs).

Power and area efficient receiver equalization architecture with relaxed DFE timing constraint

Described is an apparatus which comprises: a current steering digital-to-analog converter (DAC) to receive a digital bus to control current steering; a switch capacitor network to integrate currents from the DAC, the switch capacitor network having switches which are controllable by a plurality of digital clock signals; an output stage to compare the integrated currents against at least two threshold voltages and to generate an output signal; and a duty cycle corrector (DCC) operable to adjust the at least two threshold voltages to modify duty cycle of the output signal.

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Phoenix, AZ, United States of America

Mingming Xu