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. 19, 2002
Filed:
Oct. 08, 1998
Scott Fink, Glendale, AZ (US);
Gregory Bingham, Gilbert, AZ (US);
Richard Hull, Chandler, AZ (US);
Scott Ellison, Chandler, AZ (US);
Microchip Technology Incorporated, Chandler, AZ (US);
Abstract
An Integrated Circuit (IC) package is disclosed comprising an IC chip with a microcontroller therein having an n-bit data bus, and up to n pins electrically coupled to the microcontroller. The IC package also includes a control register coupled to the microcontroller for receiving enable and disable signals from the microcontroller. One or more of the pins have one or more functional block associated thereto. Each functional block defines a specified function for its corresponding pin. Thus, each pin having a plurality of corresponding functional blocks has a number of potential functions equal to the number of corresponding functional blocks. The specific function for a given pin is selected by the enable signal from the control register which selects the appropriate functional block appropriate command from the microcontroller. By using pins with multiple functions, the instant invention permits an n-bit architecture microcontroller to use less than or equal to n pins.