Integrated circuit having hardware circuitry to prevent electrical or thermal stressing of the silicon circuitry
AssigneeDallas Semiconductor Corporation
InventorsAndreas Curiger, Wendell L. Little
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An integrated circuit, such as a microprocessor, which incorporates hardware mechanisms to prevent the circuitry from operating outside the proper bounds of design. The hardware circuitry prevents the microprocessor circuitry from being forced to operate at clock speeds that are greater than it is designed for, from operating at temperatures above or below that which it is designed for, and from being forced to operate at voltages that are above or below voltages that the microprocessor is designed to operate at.
Claims12
An integrated circuit comprising:
- general circuitry for performing a predetermined function;
- protection circuitry, connected to said general circuitry, for resetting said general circuitry if said general circuitry is forced to operate outside of at least one predetermined parameter, said protection circuitry comprising:
- control circuitry for providing said resetting signal to said general circuitry;
- voltage-sensing circuitry for sensing an over voltage or under-voltage condition;
- temperature sensing circuitry for sensing an under temperature or over-temperature, condition;
- and
- an internal system clock which does not connect an off chip oscillation source;
- said voltage-sensing circuitry and temperature-sensing circuitry being connected to said control circuitry.
A microcontroller integrated circuit comprising:
- a central processing unit;
- an arithmetic coprocessor connected by a bus to said central processing unit;
- an on-board oscillation circuit for providing clock signals to at least said arithmetic coprocessor;
- a temperature-sensing circuit for providing a reset signal to said arithmetic coprocessor if the temperature is outside of a predetermined temperature window and for providing an erase signal at least one memory location if the temperature is below a predetermined temperature;
- and
- a voltage-sensing circuit for providing a reset signal to said arithmetic coprocessor if a supply voltage is outside of a predetermined voltage window.
An integrated circuit capable of performing encryption calculations, said integrated circuit comprising:
- temperature-sensing circuitry for sensing temperature and providing a first reset signal if the temperature is outside of a predetermined temperature range;
- voltage-sensing circuitry for sensing a supply voltage and providing a second reset signal if the supply voltage is outside of a predetermined voltage range;
- an on-board oscillation circuit for providing a clock signal to at least a portion of said integrated circuit, said oscillation circuit does not receive oscillation signals originating from off said integrated circuit, said first reset signal and said second reset signal being utilized to reset at least a arithmetic circuit on said integrated circuit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.