System and method for providing on-chip clock generation verification using an external clock

• Main Authors: MONWAI BRIAN C, JAMES NORMAN K
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 17.08.2006
• Subjects: CALCULATING; COMPUTING; COUNTING; ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING; INFORMATION STORAGE; MEASURING; MEASURING ELECTRIC VARIABLES; MEASURING MAGNETIC VARIABLES; PHYSICS; STATIC STORES; TESTING

A system and method for performing functional verification of a device, and in particular a technique for performing phase-locked loop (PLL) functional verification by the device which contains the PLL circuitry. A relatively slow-speed external clock is provided to the device, and is used to generate control signals to a counter. PLL circuitry within the device generates a relatively high-speed master clock signal for use by the device. This master clock signal is coupled to a clock input of the counter, the counter having various control inputs that are used to selectively count clock pulses of the master clock. As the frequency of the external clock signal is known, and the master clock signal is generated from known PLL circuitry, it is possible to analyze the count value from the counter to determine whether the PLL circuitry used to generate the master clock is operating properly.