Patent ID: 7424046

Claim:
A method for generating a clock signal having desired spectral characteristics, comprising: generating digital edge position values that specify desired timing of primary edges of the clock signal to impart spread spectrum modulation to the clock signal such that resulting primary-edge to primary-edge periods of the clock signal form a triangle pattern when plotted against time; receiving parameters to adjust a shape of the triangle pattern including values representing a duration and a slope of the triangle pattern; and supplying the digital edge position values to a waveform generation circuit having a digital input and which is driven by a reference clock, wherein said waveform generation circuit allows specification of each edge in an output waveform as a digital value supplied to said digital input that represents desired timing of each edge, wherein the output waveform produced by the waveform generation circuit is based on the digital edge position values and is the clock signal that exhibits the desired spectral characteristics.