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. 08, 2003
Filed:
Jan. 18, 2000
Gerard M Blair, Fort Collins, CO (US);
Hewlett Packard Development Company, L.P., Houston, TX (US);
Abstract
A system and method are provided for counting a number of clock cycles. In one embodiment, the system comprises a cascaded series of write latches and a cascaded series of erase latches. The output of each of the write latches is electrically coupled to a respective diverting multiplexer configured to divert a counting signal from the cascaded series of write latches to the cascaded series of erase latches. In order to count a specific number of cycles of the clock, one of the diverting multiplexers is set so as to divert a logical “1” advancing along the write latches into the erase latches. A specific number of clock cycles is counted by forcing a logical “1” to advance through a predetermined number of write and erase latches. Generally, the number of write and erase latches used to count a given number of clock cycles is even. Consequently, the present invention also includes an odd latch to enable the counting of an odd number of clock cycles. Also, a number of reset signal pathways are employed to reset the write latches as the logical “1” is advanced along the erase latches.