The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 07, 1989
Filed:
Jun. 11, 1986
Akira Yazawa, Tokyo, JP;
NEC Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A watchdog timer circuit employed in a microcomputer is disclosed. The watchdog timer circuit detects the occurrence of a program abnormal termination or an infinite loop operation and includes a capacitor, a charging circuit charging the capacitor when a predetermined instruction is executed, a discharging circuit discharging the capacitor when other instructions are executed, a detection circuit detecting the voltage across the capacitor and producing a detection signal when the voltage across the capacitor becomes smaller than a reference voltage, and a reset circuit resets the microcomputer to its initial state in response to an abnormal detection circuit. When the program termination or an infinite loop operation occurs, the predetermined instruction is not executed for a long period of time. The capacitor continues to be discharged. As a result, the detection signal is produced. The microcomputer is thereby reset to its initial state.
Data source: USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) public patent records. Weekly synchronization. How IDiyas builds this profile