System for a scalable and programmable power management integrated circuit

摘要

A readily scalable modular progammable integrated circuit (IC) with improved power management is provided. An IC is described that contains one master controller module and a multiplicity of slave modules that include power-supplying functions, battery management functions, and analog and digital input-output functions. The master controller module configures the slave modules by writing data to the slave modules' configuration registers through the communication network. Each module contains a multiplicity of configuration registers that determine the module's operational and parametric characteristics. Programmability is achieved by configuring the modules to respond to appropriate signals on the configurable interconnection network.