Extending a clock frequency range of a critical path monitor

US8941426B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• International Business Machines Corporation · US

Inventors

• Alan J. Drake · Round Rock, US
• Michael Stephen Floyd · Cedar Park, US
• Pawel Owczarczyk · Highland, US
• Gregory S. Still · Raleigh, US
• Marshall D. Tiner · Elgin, US
• Xiaobin Yuan · San Jose, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Dec 2, 2013
• Grant date: Jan 27, 2015
• Expiry date: Dec 2, 2033

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G01R31/31725
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A critical path monitor (CPM) is configured in an integrated circuit (IC). The IC includes a set of critical paths. The CPM includes a set of split paths, a split path in the set of split paths corresponding to a critical path in the set of critical paths, and a split path in the set of split paths including an edge detector. The edge detector is configured with a set of edge detector latches. A set of set-reset (SR) latches is configured such that an edge detector latch is associated with a corresponding SR latch. A reset signal is configured to reach the set of edge detector latches in an offset synchronization with a latch clock signal used in the set of edge detector latches. The CPM is configured to operate using a frequency of the latch clock signal such that the frequency is higher than a threshold frequency.