Battery management and protection system using a module in a sleepwalking mode to monitor operational characteristics of a battery

A battery management and protection system having an active mode and one or more low-power sleep modes, the system comprising:

• a central processing unit that is inactive while the system is in the one or more low-power sleep modes;
• a module, other than the central processing unit, to receive signals indicative of an operational characteristic of a battery and to determine whether the characteristic is within a predetermined range;
• a timekeeper that includes a prescaler to generate a plurality of different divided signals from a clock signal, each of the divided signals having a respective frequency, the plurality of divided signals representing events;
• and
• a dedicated routing network to pass the events directly from the timekeeper to the module,
• wherein, when the system is in the one or more low-power sleep modes, the module operates in a sleepwalking mode in which the module is operable to select and respond to a specified one of the events from the timekeeper, independently of the central processing unit, even if the event from the timekeeper is sent while the module is sleeping, wherein the specified one of the events has a predetermined frequency that the module is programmed to select, and wherein the module is operable to return to sleep after performing a specified action triggered by the specified event received from the timekeeper.