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:
Oct. 13, 2009
Filed:
Jan. 26, 2006
Rolf Hilgendorf, Austin, TX (US);
Jens Kuenzer, Leinfelden-Echterdingen, DE;
Cedric Lichtenau, Boeblingen, DE;
Thomas Pflueger, Leinfelden, DE;
Martin Recktenwald, Steinenbronn, DE;
Andreas Schmid, Karlsruhe, DE;
Rolf Hilgendorf, Austin, TX (US);
Jens Kuenzer, Leinfelden-Echterdingen, DE;
Cedric Lichtenau, Boeblingen, DE;
Thomas Pflueger, Leinfelden, DE;
Martin Recktenwald, Steinenbronn, DE;
Andreas Schmid, Karlsruhe, DE;
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A mechanism provides accurate time-based counters for scaling operating frequencies of microprocessors. The mechanism makes use of a time-based counter circuit configuration in which a fixed frequency clock is derived from a PLL of the clock generation circuit of the microprocessor and is used to feed the external and internal timebase logic as well as a timebase accumulator counter. The timebase accumulator counter accumulates the tick events from the timebase logic between two core clocks. The accumulated value is transferred to the core clock domain on every clock edge of a scalable clock and the accumulator is then reset. Because the accumulated ticks are transferred to the core clock domain before the accumulator is reset, no ticks are ever lost using the circuitry of the illustrative embodiment.