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:
Sep. 18, 2001
Filed:
Feb. 10, 2000
Terrance R. Bourk, La Jolla, CA (US);
Neal K. Riedel, Carlsbad, CA (US);
Silicon Wave, Inc., San Diego, CA (US);
Abstract
The present invention is a novel method and apparatus for implementing a high-precision timer utilizing a non-optimal oscillator and a high-speed oscillator wherein only one oscillator is enabled at a given moment in time. The high-precision timer method and apparatus comprises a timer and an error-correction technique. In one embodiment, the timer of the present invention is constructed from a high-speed oscillator and a low-speed non-optimal oscillator. The timer operates from the high-speed oscillator during on-the-air modes of operation and from the low-speed non-optimal oscillator during sleep modes of operation. The present inventive method corrects errors that are introduced by the non-optimal oscillator and a swallow counter. The errors are corrected using an error-correction technique having two steps: an error-determination step and an error-correction step. In the preferred embodiment of the error-determination step, a total error for a time interval is determined by performing the following steps: (1) calculating an individual error that occurs at each pulse; (2) multiplying the individual error by the number of pulses occurring during the time interval; and (3) adjusting for a non-optimal counter. Once an error has been determined, the error-correction step adjusts a clock counter accordingly. Depending upon the error-correction technique used, the error-correction step can correct the total error at one of several locations within a timer counter chain that is used to practice the present invention. The implementation of the present invention allows a straightforward realization of multiple timers.