Patent ID: 7391721
Filing Date: 2008-06-24
Classification: H03K

Abstract:
1. An apparatus comprising: a bank including a plurality of counters; an overflow buffer configured to store overflow indications corresponding to the plurality of counters; a counter update mechanism configured to update counters of the plurality of counters based on input values, and if updating a counter of said counters generates an overflow condition, adding an entry to the overflow buffer to identify the counter; a secondary storage for maintaining secondary counter values corresponding to the plurality of counters; and a secondary storage update mechanism configured to update said secondary counter values in the secondary storage, said updating said secondary counter values includes: (a) for each particular counter of the plurality of counters, reading and resetting a current value of said particular counter and adding said read current value, at least when non-zero, to a corresponding secondary counter value in the secondary storage; and (b) for each particular entry of at least a subset of entries currently stored in the overflow buffer if the overflow buffer is not empty, retrieving the particular entry from the overflow buffer and adding a value corresponding to the overflow condition corresponding to the particular entry to a corresponding secondary counter value in the secondary storage.