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:
Mar. 23, 2004
Filed:
Aug. 13, 2001
John Maxwell Cohn, Richmond, VT (US);
Alvar A. Dean, Groton, MA (US);
Amir H. Farrahi, Peekskill, NY (US);
David J. Hathaway, Underhill Center, VT (US);
Thomas Michael Lepsic, Jeffersonville, VT (US);
Patrick Edward Perry, Shelburne, VT (US);
Scott A. Tetreault, Clinton, MA (US);
Sebastian T. Ventrone, South Burlington, VT (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
In integrated circuit (IC) designs, a component of power consumed may be represented as Power=½ FCV , where C is the load capacitance being driven by a source cell, F is the switching frequency of the source cell, and V is the total output voltage swing. However, not every signal value generated by a source cell is required to propagate to all the sink cells connected to the source for every clock cycle of a chip. Accordingly, an isolate cell is inserted in a net (wire) connecting a source cell to at least one sink cell, to de-couple the at least one sink cell and a portion of the net from the source cell when a signal output by the source need not propagate. Due to the de-coupling, the load capacitance associated with the at least one sink and net portion is not experienced by the source cell for such signals. Accordingly, overall IC power consumption is reduced.