Patent ID: 9513329
Filing Date: 2016-12-06
CPC Classification: G01R,G06F

Claim Text:
1. An apparatus arranged to meter usage of one or more components of an integrated circuit, the apparatus comprising: one or more storage locations configured to store respective usage vectors, wherein a usage vector of the usage vectors is associated with a particular component of the one or more components of the integrated circuit; and a metering circuit coupled with the one or more components of the integrated circuit, wherein the metering circuit includes one or more processing paths, a processing path of the one or more processing paths corresponds to the particular component of the integrated circuit, and the processing path includes a set of circuit elements, wherein the processing path is effective to receive and process the usage vector, and wherein an age of the set of circuit elements is based on a number of times the usage vector is received and processed by the processing path, and the age of the set of circuit elements is effective to indicate a usage of the particular component of the integrated circuit.