Semiconductor integrated circuit
AssigneeMatsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
InventorIchiro Yamane
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A semiconductor integrated circuit including one or a plurality of external functional blocks; a nonvolatile memory having a logical content as to whether to validate or invalidate the external functional blocks; and a logical circuit validating or invalidating an input and an output to each external functional block in accordance with the logical content of the memory, wherein a user is allowed to validate use of a necessary external functional block and to invalidate use of an unnecessary external functional block.
Claims32
A semiconductor integrated circuit comprising:
- at least one external functional block;
- a validation circuit coupled to said external functional block and operative for rendering said external functional block operative or inoperative;
- and
- a control circuit coupled to said validation circuit and operative for forwarding an input signal to said validation circuit, said validation circuit rendering said external functional block operative or inoperative in accordance with the value of said input signal.
A method for activating external functional blocks contained in a semiconductor integrated circuit, said method comprising the steps of:
- determining which of a plurality of external functional blocks contained in said semiconductor circuit are to be operative, each of said external functional blocks having a corresponding validation circuit coupled thereto, said validation circuit operative for rendering said corresponding external functional block operative or inoperative;
- forwarding an input signal having a first value to each validation circuit coupled to an external functional block to be operative, said input signal having said first value controls said validation circuit such that said external functional block coupled thereto is operative;
- forwarding an input signal having a second value to each validation circuit coupled to an external functional block to be inoperative;
- said input signal having said second value controls said validation circuit such that said external functional block coupled thereto is inoperative;
- and
- recording each of said external functional blocks made operative so as to allow for determination of a royalty payment associated with said semiconductor integrated circuit.
A semiconductor integrated circuit, realizing a predetermined function with one or a plurality of external functional blocks, comprising:
- a validation circuit operative for validating at least one of said external functional blocks operative or inoperative;
- and
- a control circuit, which is coupled to said validation circuit, operative for forwarding an input signal to said validation circuit, said validation circuit rendering said at least one of external functional block operative or inoperative in accordance with the value of said input signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.