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. 06, 2004
Filed:
Jul. 13, 2000
Peter James Aldworth, Cambridge, GB;
Arm Limited, Cambridge, GB;
Abstract
The present invention relates to an interface mechanism and particularly to an interface mechanism for interfacing a real-time clock operating at a first frequency with a data processing circuit operating at a second frequency. The interface mechanism comprises a first input for receiving a relative real-time clock value from the real-time clock, and a second input for receiving an update value from the data processing circuit specifying a desired value for the real-time clock. Update logic is also provided for producing an absolute real-time clock value, the update logic being arranged in response to receipt of the update value to generate an offset value derived from the relative real-time clock value and the update value, the offset value then being applied to the relative real-time clock value to produce an updated absolute real-time clock value. The updated absolute real-time clock value is then output from the interface mechanism. This enables the update of the real-time clock to be performed very efficiently, without the need to perform any of the update procedure in the slow frequency domain of the real-time clock.