US 7,741,866 B2 · Load-aware circuit arrangement

Abstract

The present invention relates to a circuit arrangement and method of controlling power consumption of the circuit arrangement, wherein a load applied at a circuit component is determined and the drive capacity of the circuit component is adjusted responsive to the determination result. In particular, the circuit component is tailored to have just sufficient drive capacity depending on the potential load which may be determined by examining a configuration information loaded to the circuit arrangement. Tailoring for sufficient drive can be achieved either by varying the size or number of circuit components or by adjusting the threshold voltage of circuit elements, or by doing both. Thereby, power consumption can be reduced when circuit components are driven at loads lower than the worst case load.

Claims15

Dependent claims

A configurable circuit arrangement comprising at least one circuit component at which a load is applied that can vary during operation of said circuit arrangement, wherein said configurable circuit arrangement comprises:

load determination means for determining a load applied at said at least one circuit component having different fan-in or fan-out depending on a configuration of said configurable circuit arrangement;
and
adjusting means for switching off a buffer connected to the at least one circuit component according to the determination of the applied load, wherein switching off the buffer adjusts a drive capacity of said at least one circuit component to a value less than a maximum drive capacity while still meeting a delay specification.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Load-aware circuit arrangement

Life of this patent

Load-aware circuit arrangement

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims15