Appeal No. 1998-0692
Application No. 08/693,551
consumption of an electrical component while maintaining high
operating frequency. More particularly, critical signal paths
that require a higher voltage in order to operate below a
maximum propagation delay in order to maintain the operating
frequency of the device are separated out and operated at the
higher voltage while the remaining devices which do not
require the higher voltage to have signal paths operate below
the maximum propagation delay are operated at a lower power
supply to minimize overall power consumption of the component.
Representative independent claim 4 is reproduced as
follows:
4. An electrical component comprising a plurality of
devices which are powered by a plurality of voltages, said
devices arranged in signal paths, said signal paths including
critical signal paths wherein during operation of the
component a signal must propagate through the critical signal
paths within a maximum propagation delay required to maintain
the operating frequency of the component, said component
operating with a minimum amount of power consumption, said
component comprising:
a first portion of the component having only first
voltage signal paths of devices which operate below the
maximum propagation delay when the devices are operated at a
first voltage said first portion operating using low power
consumption;
a second portion of the component having only second
voltage signal paths of devices which do not operate below the
maximum propagation delay when the devices in the signal paths
are operated at the first voltage, the devices of the second
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