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:
Jun. 01, 1999
Filed:
Nov. 21, 1996
Jorge E Lach, Lexington, MA (US);
Bennet H Ih, Cambridge, MA (US);
Sun Microsystems, Inc., Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
A digital electronic circuit device comprises a plurality of circuit elements, a scan chain establishment element, and a unitary clock domain establishment element. The plurality of circuit elements define a plurality of clock domains, and circuit elements in each clock domain perform processing operations under control of a respective domain clock signal. The scan chain establishment element interconnects the circuit elements in a scan chain to facilitate loading and/or retrieval of a scan vector into and/or out of the digital circuit device. The unitary clock domain establishment element establishes a unitary clock domain for the circuit element when the scan chain establishment element is interconnecting the circuit elements in a scan chain. Thus, the scan vector will be loaded into or retrieved from the digital electronic circuit device using the single, unitary clock signal, thereby avoiding any necessity of using synchronizers or other elements for the scan chain which can complicate layout of the device.