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:
May. 26, 2009
Filed:
Sep. 19, 2001
John Vaglica, Austin, TX (US);
John Vaglica, Austin, TX (US);
Freescale Semiconductor, Inc., Austin, TX (US);
Abstract
A CPU has a powerdown mode in which most of the circuitry does not receive power. Power-up, coming out of powerdown, is achieved in response to receiving an exception. Because most of the state information that is present in the CPU is not needed in response to an exception, there is no problem in removing power to most of the CPU during powerdown. The programmer's model register file and a few other circuits in the CPU are maintained in powerdown, but the vast majority of the circuits that make up the CPU: the execution unit, the instruction decode and control logic, instruction pipeline and bus interface, do not need to receive power. Removing power from these non-critical circuits results in significant power savings during powerdown. The powered circuits are provided with a reduced power supply voltage to provide additional power savings.