Patent ID: 7379522

Claim:
A method comprising: (a) selecting one of a first operating mode of a configurable frequency divider and a second operating mode of the configurable frequency divider, wherein the configurable frequency divider includes a prescaler and a plurality of modulus divider stages; (b) frequency dividing an input signal using an N-stage multi-modulus divider when the first operating mode was selected in (a), wherein the N-stage multi-modulus divider includes a number N of the plurality of modulus divider stages; and (c) frequency dividing the input signal using the prescaler and an M-stage multi-modulus divider when the second operating mode was selected in (a), wherein in the second operating mode the prescaler outputs a prescaler output signal such that the prescaler output signal is divided by the M-stage multi-modulus divider, wherein the M-stage multi-modulus divider includes a number M of modulus divider stages, wherein the M modulus divider stages are a subset of the N modulus divider stages.