Apple Inc.

Robert S Brandt, Ii

Bruno Werner Garlepp

Jafar Savoj

Ke Yun

Navin Kumar

A universally-designed control circuit for communicating with multiple types of sensors is disclosed. For example, a control circuit may communicate with either ring oscillator-based sensors or BJT-based sensors based on programming implemented in the control circuit. The control circuit may include programmable communication protocol circuits for communicating with the sensors and conversion circuits that convert a particular type of sensor data packet into a generic format. The generic format sensor data may then be utilized by a power management unit or other device to control operation of an integrated circuit.

Sensor interface circuit controller for multiple sensor types in an integrated circuit device

A sensor circuit in a computer system measures a frequency of an oscillator circuit and uses the measured frequency to determine an operating condition of the computer system. The accuracy of the operating condition is limited by various sources of noise, including device noise, that introduce error into frequency measurements, limiting the accuracy to which the frequency of the oscillator signal may be measured. To improve the accuracy of the frequency measurement of the oscillator signal, the sensor circuit disables the oscillator between successive measurements, in order to reduce the correlation of error between the successive measurements. The sensor circuit combines the multiple measurement results to determine the frequency of the oscillator signal to a higher degree of accuracy, thereby improving the accuracy to which the operating condition is determined.

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Satellite Beach, CA, United States of America

Robert S Brandt, Ii