Dialog Semiconductor (UK) Limited

Philip Todd

Olivier Girard

Joao Paulo Trierveiler Martins

Daniele Giorgetti

An integrated circuit coupled to an external serial bus is presented. A method for prefetching data from an external serial bus is presented. The integrated circuit comprises a serial interface, a data cache, and a prefetch control unit. The serial interface detects a data address on the serial bus and reads data elements from data storage units. The data storage units may be internal or external to the integrated circuit. The data cache is coupled to the serial interface via an internal bus. The prefetch control unit instructs the serial interface to prefetch a data element associated with the data address by reading the data element from a target data storage unit associated with the data address. The data element and the data address are written to the data cache. When a read request is detected, the data element can be quickly accessed from the data cache.

Integrated circuit with a serial interface

A distributed power management system comprising at least two power management integrated circuits PMICs is presented. A master power management integrated circuit PMIC supplies power to a subsystem of an electronic device based on a current state of a master finite state machine FSM executed by the master PMIC. A slave power management integrated circuit PMIC executes a slave finite state machine FSM and supplies power to another subsystem based on the current state of the master FSM. For synchronizing the operation of both PMIC, the master PMIC transmits, to the slave PMIC, synchronization information indicative of at least one of an input signal of the master FSM, a state of the master FSM, a state transition of the master FSM, and an output signal generated by the master FSM. A distributed power management method is presented which is carried out by a master PMIC and a slave PMIC.

Control and synchronization mechanism for a complex distributed power management system

The use of a sleep, or halt, instruction enables a processor to halt execution when read from a non-volatile memory. The opcode for the sleep instruction is the same value as the constant bit value of an un-programmed, nonvolatile memory. When the opcode is read by the processor, execution is halted and the processor enters a wait or sleep mode. During the sleep mode, firmware is programmed into memory with another means such as an external host processor. When a valid trigger event occurs, for instance, external or internal interrupts or reset activation, the processor then exits the sleep mode and starts instruction etching at the PC_INIT address.

Conditional processor auto boot with no boot loader when coupled with a nonvolatile memory

A debounce circuit eliminates noise, glitches, or transient signal variations resulting from mechanical bounce occurring at a change of state of analog signals and provides a dynamic debounce period alteration and time base variation without loss of the current debounce state. The debounce circuit has a physical counter that is configured for being adjusted within a virtual counter such that the noise, glitches, or transient signal variations resulting from mechanical bounce occurring at an initiation of a change of state of an analog input signal from a source device are filtered by delaying a change of output state of the debounce circuit. The debounce circuit includes a strobe generator that produces a strobe signal that is a submultiple of a master clock that is determined by the location of the physical counter within the virtual counter that is used to increment the physical counter within the virtual counter.

Growing community of inventors

Corsham, United Kingdom

Philip Todd