Voltage Domain GPIO Control
AssigneeApple Inc.
InventorSharon D. Mutchnik
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An integrated circuit (IC) includes an Input/Output (I/O) interface, first-domain circuitry and second-domain circuitry. The I/O interface is coupled to a first voltage domain and is configurable by a set of control bits. The second-domain circuitry is coupled to a second voltage domain and is configured to generate a bit value for a control bit among the control bits, to generate a multi-bit identifier (ID) of the control bit, and to transmit the bit value and the multi-bit ID. The first-domain circuitry is coupled to the first voltage domain and is configured to receive the bit value and the multi-bit ID, to identify the control bit from the multi-bit ID, and to configure the control bit of the I/O interface with the bit value.
Claims10
An integrated circuit (IC), comprising:
- an Input/Output (I/O) interface, which is coupled to a first voltage domain and is configurable by a set of control bits;
- second-domain circuitry, which is coupled to a second voltage domain and is configured to generate a bit value for a selected control bit among the control bits;
- first-domain circuitry, which is coupled to the first voltage domain and is configured to receive the bit value and the multi-bit ID, to identify the control bit from the multi-bit ID, and to configure the selected control bit of the I/O interface with the bit value;
- and
- multiple level shifters, fewer in number than the control bits, configured to identify the selected control bit to the first-domain circuitry.
A method, comprising:
- operating an Input/Output (I/O) interface, which is coupled to a first voltage domain and is configurable by a set of control bits;
- using second-domain circuitry coupled to a second voltage domain, generating a bit value for a selected control bit among the control bits;
- using multiple level shifters, fewer in number than the control bits, identifying the selected control bit to the first-domain circuitry;
- and
- using first-domain circuitry coupled to the first voltage domain, receiving the bit value and configuring the selected control bit of the I/O interface with the bit value.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.