Intel Corporation

Sean M Welch

Alon Naveh

Jorge Pedro Rodriguez

Hung-Piao Ma

Joseph T Dibene, Ii

Edward R Stanford

Kosta Luria

Annabelle Pratt

Gil Schwarzband

Robert C Rose

James Ignowski

Rex Petersen

Mondira D Pant

Aaron M Barton

Pablo Lopez

Methods and mechanisms to simultaneously regulate two or more supply voltages provided to an integrated circuit by a voltage regulator. In an embodiment of the invention, a voltage regulation message exchanged between the integrated circuit and the voltage regulator includes an identifier indicating two or more supply voltages selected from a plurality of supply voltages provided to the integrated circuit by the voltage regulator, where the voltage regulation message relates to the indicated two or more supply voltages. In another embodiment, the voltage regulation message indicates a desired supply voltage level to which the indicated two or more supply voltages are to transition.

Simultaneous multi-voltage rail voltage regulation messages

Methods and systems to detect droop events on-chip, which may include a sensor circuit located adjacent to a voltage node to convert a corresponding voltage to a digital count or value indicative of the voltage. The sensor circuit may include an n-stage ring oscillator and an asynchronous counter. The sensor circuit may include circuitry to capture and convert a phase associated with a count to a binary fractional value to increase voltage resolution. Multiple counts associated with the node may be evaluated at the node to identify minimum and maximum counts and corresponding time stamps. More complex evaluation and control circuitry may be shared amongst a plurality of sensor circuits and may include circuitry to generate and compare counts to one or more variable thresholds, circuitry to average counts over time, and memory to store state values associated with the sensors.

Methods and systems to detect voltage changes within integrated circuits

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Bellinghame, MA, United States of America

Sean M Welch