Chip instrumentation for in-situ clock domain characterization

摘要

Chip instrumentation determines, in-situ, an allowable increase over product specification in the operating frequency of at least one clock domain in an integrated circuit for a given set of environmental, power supply and/or functionality constraints. Information on the allowable increase in operating frequency for the at least one clock domain is provided to circuits and/or software to effect change in operating frequency.

主权项

1. A method of providing information indicative of an operating speed for a clock domain on a chip, comprising:
setting, on the chip, information that defines a test operating speed; operating, at the test operating speed, a duplicate critical circuit path; determining whether the duplicate critical circuit path produces an expected result when operated at the test operating speed; changing, if the determination is affirmative, the information that defines the test operating speed to produce an increased test operating speed that is increased by a predetermined amount; and setting, if the determination is negative, information that defines a real operating speed to be equal to the increased test operating speed minus the predetermined amount; wherein the duplicate critical circuit path matches physical and electrical characteristics of an actual critical circuit path in the clock domain.