APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING VOLTAGE AND FREQUENCY USING MULTIPLE REFERENCE CIRCUITS

摘要

A method and an apparatus for controlling voltage level and clock signal frequency supplied to a system. The method comprises: providing (410) at least one reference circuit representative of a behavior of at least one estimated circuit, whereas the at least one estimated circuit includes transistors of multiple types; supplying (420) at least one input signal to at least one reference circuits and monitoring a behavior of the at least one reference circuit one or more reference circuit; determining (430) a characteristic of at least one output signal provided to the at least one estimated circuit; and providing (440) at least one output signal to one or more estimated circuits. The apparatus includes at least one reference circuit (310, 320, 330) representative of a behavior of at least one estimated circuit (110, 120, 130), whereas the at least one estimated circuit includes transistors of multiple types; and monitoring circuitry (312, 314, 316, 322, 324, 326, 332, 334, 336,350, 110) adapted to monitor a behavior of at least one reference circuit and to determine a characteristic of at least one output signal provided to the at least one estimated circuit.