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.

Date of Patent:
Jun. 25, 2002

Filed:

Dec. 21, 1999
Applicant:
Inventors:

Stephen C. Horne, Austin, TX (US);

Kenneth D. Amstutz, Austin, TX (US);

Assignee:

Intrinsity, Inc., Austin, TX (US);

Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G01R 3/128 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G01R 3/128 ;
Abstract

The present invention is a method and apparatus that initializes N-NARY logic and dynamic logic to a special stress mode. The present invention has a logic circuit that includes a shared logic tree with one or more evaluate nodes, one or more precharge devices, and an evaluate device. Coupled to the evaluate nodes is a state generation control circuit that generates a state signal. A state generation circuit receives the state signal from the state generation control circuit and initializes the evaluate nodes to a functionally illegal state that initializes the logic circuit to the special stress mode. One embodiment of the present invention initializes the evaluate nodes to a low state. When the first logic circuit in a series of logic circuits is initialized to the functionally illegal state, the present invention will initialize the succeeding logic circuits in the series as each phase in the different clock domains evaluate, which initializes the succeeding logic circuits to the special stress mode.


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