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:
Jun. 09, 2009
Filed:
Oct. 25, 2007
Vikas Agarwal, Austin, TX (US);
Sanjay Dubey, Austin, TX (US);
Saiful Islam, Austin, TX (US);
Gaurav Mittal, Round Rock, TX (US);
Vikas Agarwal, Austin, TX (US);
Sanjay Dubey, Austin, TX (US);
Saiful Islam, Austin, TX (US);
Gaurav Mittal, Round Rock, TX (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
An energy-saving circuit and method using charge equalization across complementary nodes reduces power consumption in memory circuits and other circuits such as wide multiplexers having complementary high-capacitance nodes. A change detection circuit detects a state change to be applied to the bitlines, and generates a pulse if a state change is to be applied. A pass gate connected between the nodes is activated in response to the pulse to equalize the charge on the bitlines. The driver circuit enable inputs are also delayed, so that the bitlines are not driven until after the charge has been equalized and the pass gate disabled. In one embodiment, the driver circuits are only enabled momentarily by a pulsed output of the change detector and keeper circuits are employed to retain the bitlines in their asserted states.