Patent ID: 8631290

Claim:
An automated guardband compensation system for automatically compensating for degradation in the guardband of a clocked data processing circuit while that circuit is connected within a data processing system comprising: a switching circuit configured when requested to switch a critical path in the clocked data processing circuit out of and back into a data processing pathway in the data processing system while the clocked data processing circuit is connected within the data processing system; a guardband test circuit configured when requested to test for degradation in the guardband of the critical path while the critical path is switched out of the data processing pathway; a guardband compensation circuit configured when requested to increase the guardband; and a control circuit configured to automatically and repeatedly request: the switching circuit to switch the critical path out of the data processing pathway while the clocked data processing circuit is connected within the data processing system; the guardband test circuit to test the guardband of the critical path while the critical path is switched out of the data processing pathway; the guardband compensation circuit to increase the guardband when the results of the test indicate a material degradation in the guardband; and the switching circuit to switch the critical path back into the data processing pathway after the test.