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:
Dec. 30, 2008
Filed:
Sep. 26, 2005
Dale Robert Greenley, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Chitresh Chandra Narasimhaiah, San Jose, CA (US);
Senthilkumar Diraviam, Mountain View, CA (US);
Dale Robert Greenley, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Chitresh Chandra Narasimhaiah, San Jose, CA (US);
Senthilkumar Diraviam, Mountain View, CA (US);
Sun Microsystems, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for stopping the internal clock of a microprocessor synchronously with the execution of an instruction is provided. A stop instruction is placed in a sequence of instructions to be executed by the microprocessor. The execution of the stop execution may store a stop value into a stop register of the microprocessor. Clock stop logic detects when the stop value has been stored into the stop register. The clock stop logic instructs a clock generation component, of the microprocessor, to cease generation of an internal clock signal, thereby preventing the microprocessor from changing state. As further instructions are not executed by the microprocessor, the state of the microprocessor reflects the execution of the instruction immediately prior to the stop instruction. The processing state of the microprocessor may be obtained for use in debugging the design of the microprocessor or the instructions executed thereby.