Patent ID: 7503018

Claim:
A method of switching a first power supply of a first voltage domain and a second power supply of a second voltage domain of a semiconductor circuit, the method comprising: switching the first power supply using a plurality of first switches which are designed in a standard cell design and the plurality of first switches being switched in accordance with a same first control signal; switching the second power supply using a plurality of second switches which are designed in a standard cell design and the plurality of second switches being switched in accordance with a same second control signal; wherein a power consumption of the first voltage domain is higher than a power consumption of the second voltage domain; wherein a number of the first switches to switch the first power supply of the first voltage domain is larger than a number of the second switches to switch the second power supply of the second voltage domain, and wherein the semiconductor circuit includes a plurality of voltage domains including the first and second voltage domain, and every voltage domain of which the power supply is to be switched is supplied by: a first local switchable supply voltage line to which a first supply potential of the semiconductor circuit is to be switched using a switch, or a first local switchable supply voltage line and a second local switchable supply voltage line, in which case a first supply potential is switched to the first local switchable supply voltage line using the switch and a second supply potential is switched to the second local switchable supply voltage line using the same switch.