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. 04, 2006
Filed:
May. 17, 2004
Jan A. Wikstrom, Chippewa Falls, WI (US);
Jan A. Wikstrom, Chippewa Falls, WI (US);
Cray Inc., Seattle, WA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus of precharging data and/or address lines each having a large number of loads to a voltage midway between high and low using a source-follower configuration, and optionally driving only one-half of the precharge circuit based on a previous logical value on the line being precharged. In some embodiments, a driver circuit drives an output node either high or low during a first phase of each clock cycle, and a precharge circuit then precharges the output node to an intermediate voltage during a second phase of the clock cycle in preparation for the following clock cycle. Some embodiments include source-follower configured FETs to precharge, wherein these FETs turn off once the output voltage reaches an intermediate value.