Patent ID: 8140875

Claim:
An integrated circuit apparatus, comprising: a plurality of power domains to which power voltage is separately supplied; a plurality of circuit macros belonging to the plurality of power domains, respectively; a plurality of power switches to conduct or to substantially block power coming from a power circuit and going to the plurality of power domains, respectively; and a power-controlling unit including the following, a controller to control the plurality of power switches, a power domain register to store power domain data which corresponds to a plurality of external interrupt signals and indicates power domains that are to be activated; and an interrupt handler to respond to the external interrupt signals by delivering the power domain data corresponding to the external interrupt signals to the controller, the controller being operable to turn on/off the power switches corresponding to the power domains indicated by the power domain data, respectively, wherein the power domain register stores first power domain data corresponding to a first external interrupt signal to indicate a first power domain group, and stores second power domain data corresponding to a second external interrupt signal to indicate a second power domain group, and wherein the plurality of circuit macros includes at least a communication CPU and an application CPU, the first external interrupt signal is induced in a given cycle, and the controller is operable to turn on the power switch of the power domain of the communication CPU when the first external interrupt signal is induced, the second external interrupt signal is induced corresponding to an application processing operation, and the controller is operable to turn on the power switch of the power domain of the application CPU when the second external interrupt signal is induced.