Detecting distributed voltage regulator failures
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsMICHAEL SPERLING, JENS DACI
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Detecting distributed voltage regulator failures including providing an integrated circuit having a plurality of voltage regulators in a voltage domain, a voltage detector, and a voltage comparator; enabling only a first voltage regulator from the plurality of voltage regulators; with only the first voltage regulator enabled, measuring an output voltage from the voltage domain by the voltage detector; and determining the first voltage regulator has failed by the voltage comparator finding that a difference between the output voltage and an expected voltage from the voltage domain is greater than a threshold.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- providing an integrated circuit having a plurality of voltage regulators in a voltage domain, a voltage detector, and a voltage comparator;
- enabling only a first voltage regulator from the plurality of voltage regulators;
- with only the first voltage regulator enabled, measuring an output voltage from the voltage domain by the voltage detector;
- and
- determining the first voltage regulator has failed by the voltage comparator finding that a difference between the output voltage and an expected voltage from the voltage domain is greater than a threshold.
A computer system comprising:
- a processor set;
- one or more computer-readable storage media;
- and
- program instructions stored on the one or more computer-readable storage media to cause the processor set to perform operations comprising:
- providing an integrated circuit having a plurality of voltage regulators in a voltage domain, a voltage detector, and a voltage comparator;
- enabling only a first voltage regulator from the plurality of voltage regulators;
- with only the first voltage regulator enabled, measuring an output voltage from the voltage domain by the voltage detector;
- and
- determining the first voltage regulator has failed by the voltage comparator finding that a difference between the output voltage and an expected voltage from the voltage domain is greater than a threshold.
A computer program product comprising:
- one or more computer-readable storage media;
- and
- program instructions stored on the one or more storage media to perform operations comprising:
- providing an integrated circuit having a plurality of voltage regulators in a voltage domain, a voltage detector, and a voltage comparator;
- enabling only a first voltage regulator from the plurality of voltage regulators;
- with only the first voltage regulator enabled, measuring an output voltage from the voltage domain by the voltage detector;
- and
- determining the first voltage regulator has failed by the voltage comparator finding that a difference between the output voltage and an expected voltage from the voltage domain is greater than a threshold.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.