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:
Jul. 16, 2002
Filed:
Jun. 27, 2001
Kailash Nagarakanti, Santa Clara, CA (US);
William Baker, Starkville, MS (US);
Cypress Semiconductor Corporation, San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
The present invention is an efficient system and method for flexible masking of output bits from a counter. The maskable counter system and method of the present invention modify the chain carry fed into a counter so that any bit (or bits) of the counter may be masked. A masked bit of a maskable counter system and method is utilized to facilitate user programmable control of multiple configurations in a memory. A maskable counter system comprises a mask register (e.g., a D flip flop), a counter (e.g., a D flip flop), and a masking coordination circuit. The masking coordination circuit permits a carry in signal, a carry out signal, and a counter output bit signal to operate in a normal incrementation manner if a mask bit is not asserted and prevents the counter output bit signal from changing if the mask bit is asserted.