Qualcomm Incorporated

Texas Instruments Corporation

University of Minnesota

Palkesh Jain

Rahul Gulati

Virendra Bansal

Manoj Mehrotra

Ajoy Mandal

Jon James Anderson

Keith Alan Bowman

Mehdi Saeidi

Young-Joon Park

Arvind Nembili Veeravalli

Hugh Thomas Mair

Srikanth Krishnan

Roberto Avanzi

Nagaraj Narasimh Savithri

Ronald Alton

Shih-Hsin Jason Hu

Mohammad Reza Kakoee

Pranjal Bhuyan

Usha Narasimha

Richard Wunderlich

Sachin S Sapatnekar

Chethan Swamynathan

Yuancheng Chris Pan

Venkatasubramanyam Visvanathan

Guru Chakrapani Prasad

Edward Jacob Meisarosh

Vivek Mishra

Gracieli Posser

Ricardo Reis

In certain aspects, a device comprises a first processing unit; a first power distribution network coupled to the first processing unit; a first decoupling capacitor coupled to the first power distribution network; a second processing unit configured to be identical to the first processing unit; a second power distribution network coupled to the second processing unit; and a second decoupling capacitor coupled to the second power distribution network, wherein the second decoupling capacitor is configured to have different effect on the second power distribution network than the first decoupling capacitor on the first power distribution network.

Configurable redundant systems for safety critical applications

Various embodiments may include methods and systems for monitoring characteristics of a system-on-a-chip. Various embodiments may include inputting, from a test data input connection, test data to a first scan chain section including a first group of logic gates located within a first region of the SoC. Various embodiments may include providing, from a first clock gate associated with the first region of the SoC, a clock signal to the first group of logic gates. Various embodiments may include measuring, using a first sensor, the characteristics at a second region of the SoC in response to providing the clock signal to the first group of logic gates. Embodiments may further include processing or analyzing measured characteristics to determine a testing result.

In-field monitoring of on-chip thermal, power distribution network, and power grid reliability

In one embodiment, a system including a duty-cycle-monitoring circuit is configured to receive a monitored signal having cycles that have a high portion and a low portion. The duty-cycle-monitoring circuit includes: a cascade of buffers including a first buffer, wherein the first buffer is configured to receive a first signal based on the monitored signal, a plurality of corresponding flip-flops. Each flip-flop is triggered by a second signal based on the monitored signal. The data input of each flip-flop is connected to an output of a corresponding buffer. The duty-cycle-monitoring circuit further includes a control circuit configured to determine, based on a state of the plurality of flip-flops, a measure of the duration of the high portion of a cycle of the monitored signal and determine, based on a state of the plurality of flip-flops, a measure of duration of the low portion of a cycle of the monitored signal.

Digital duty-cycle monitoring of a periodic signal

Various embodiments of methods and systems context-aware thermal management in a portable computing device ('PCD') are disclosed. Notably, the environmental context to which a PCD is subjected may have significant impact on the PCD's thermal energy dissipation efficiency. Embodiments of the solution seek to leverage knowledge of a PCD's environmental context to modify or adjust thermal policy parameters applied within a PCD in response to a thermal event within the PCD.

System and method for context-aware thermal management and workload scheduling in a portable computing device

Various additional and alternative aspects are described herein. In some aspects, the present disclosure provides a method of testing error-correcting code (ECC) logic. The method includes receiving data for storage in a memory. The method further includes receiving an address indicating a location in the memory to store the data. The method further includes determining if the received address matches at least one of one or more test addresses. The method further includes operating the ECC logic in a normal mode when the received address does not match at least one of the one or more test addresses. The method further includes operating the ECC logic in a test mode when the received address does match at least one of the one or more test addresses.

Error correcting code testing

An integrated device that includes a substrate, a device level layer formed over the substrate, and interconnect portion over the device level layer. The device level layer includes a plurality of first device level cells, each first device level cell comprising a first configuration. The device level layer includes a plurality of second device level cells. At least one second device level cell includes a second configuration that is different than the first configuration. The plurality of second device level cells is located over at least one region of the integrated device comprising at least one hotspot.

Integrated device comprising device level cells with variable sizes for heat dissipation around hotspots

Apparatuses and methods to adjust voltage for thermal mitigation are provided. The apparatus includes a circuit, a plurality of switches configured to provide power of a power domain to the circuit, a plurality of thermal sensors disposed at different locations about the circuit and configured to detect temperatures at the different locations, and a control circuit configured to determine that one of the detected temperatures at one of the locations exceeds a temperature threshold, and in response, adjust one or more of the plurality of switches in proximity with the one location to reduce power provided to the circuit. The method includes providing power of a power domain through a plurality of switches, detecting a temperature at a location exceeding a temperature threshold, and adjusting the plurality of switches in proximity with the location to reduce the power provided, in response to the detecting the temperature exceeding the temperature threshold.

Adjust voltage for thermal mitigation

The disclosure relates to an apparatus and method for false pass detection in lockstep dual processing core systems, triple modular redundancy (TMR) systems, or other redundant processing systems. A false pass occurs when two processing cores generate matching data outputs, both of which are in error. A false pass may occur when the processing core are both subjected to substantially the same adverse condition, such as a supply voltage drop or a sudden temperature change or gradient. The apparatus includes processing cores configured to generate first and second data outputs and first and second timing violation signals. A voter-comparator validates the first and second data outputs if they match and the first and second timing violation signals indicate no timing violations. Otherwise, the voter comparator invalidates the first and second data outputs. Validated data outputs are used for performing additional operations, and invalidated data outputs may be discarded.

System and method for false pass detection in lockstep dual core or triple modular redundancy (TMR) systems

Apparatuses and methods to adjust a source voltage based on stored information are provided. The apparatus includes a circuit configured to receive power from a power source through a power distribution network, a storage medium storing data specifying one or more electrical characteristics of the circuit, and a control circuit configured to adjust a source voltage at the power source based on the data stored in the storage medium. The method includes receiving power by a circuit from a power source through a power distribution network, reading data specifying one or more electrical characteristics of the circuit from a storage medium, and adjusting a source voltage at the power source based on the data stored in the storage medium.

Adjusting source voltage based on stored information

The present disclosure is directed to mitigating voltage droops. An aspect includes outputting, by a clock module coupled to a multiplexor, a first clock signal to the multiplexor, the first clock signal generated by a clock delay component of the clock module, receiving, by the clock module, a second clock signal from a phase-locked loop (PLL), wherein the PLL outputs a third clock signal to a processor coupled to the PLL and the multiplexor, selecting, by the multiplexor, the first clock signal to output to the processor based on detecting a droop in voltage on a power supply, and selecting, by the multiplexor, the third clock signal to output to the processor based on detecting that the droop in the voltage on the power supply has passed, wherein the clock module and the processor are coupled to the power supply.

Systems and methods for adaptive clock design

Various aspects include a clock monitoring unit/component that is configured to repeatedly/continuously monitor a clock with the speed required to support automobile automation systems without the use of a reference clock. The clock monitoring unit/component may be configured to identify, report, and/or respond to variations or abnormalities in the monitored clock, and initiate an action to prevent the variation from causing or resulting in a failure or a vulnerability to attack. The clock monitoring unit/component in the various aspects may be configured, organized, or arranged to operate so that the circuit is immune or resistant to manipulation, modification, tampering, hacks, and other attacks.

Ultra-fast autonomous clock monitoring circuit for safe and secure automotive applications

A circuit design system includes a simulator that determines an average charging current provided by each current insertion point in a cell and an average charging current along a path in the cell between a reference pin position and a candidate pin position. A candidate pin placement tester updates the average charging current along the path by adding the average charging current of each insertion point to the average charging current along the path to produce an updated average charging current along the path and uses the updated average charging current along the path to determine a time to failure for the cell.

Cell-level signal electromigration

An adaptive clock distribution (ACD) system with a voltage tracking clock generator (VTCG) is disclosed. The ACD system includes a tunable-length delay (TLD) circuit, to generate a TLD clock by adding a preselected delay to a root clock, and a voltage droop detector for detecting a voltage droop in a supply voltage. The VTCG is configured to generate a VTCG clock, wherein a frequency of the VTCG clock is finely tuned to one of two or more values to correspond to a magnitude of the supply voltage during the voltage droop. A clock selector selects the VTCG clock as an ACD clock to be provided to an electronic circuit during the voltage droop and the TLD clock as the ACD clock when there is no voltage droop detected.

Supply voltage tracking clock generator in adaptive clock distribution systems

Standard cells that include transistors subject to aging as a result of BTI-related operating conditions are identified and replaced with BTI-resistant standard cells, for example. The BTI-resistant standard cells are typically functionally equivalent circuits (such as circuits included in standard cells in a design library) and are arranged to ensure that critical transistors are protected (e.g., by either extending recovery times and/or turning the transistor off in response to a critical edge transition).

Bias temperature instability-resistant circuits

An integrated circuit is described. The integrated circuit, comprising: a central processor; a memory; and an electromigration compensation system associated with a plurality of leads within the integrated circuit, wherein the electromigration compensation system causes the plurality of leads to have interlocking, horizontally tapered ends that substantially reduces electromigration divergence and consequently lead resistance and circuit shorting.

Growing community of inventors

Bengaluru, India

Palkesh Jain