Clock Stopping Schemes for Data Buffer

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a structure and method for stopping internal clocks of an integrated circuit to facilitate IN-testing of the integrated circuit.

2. Description of Related Art

The market for semiconductor devices is becoming increasingly competitive as more manufacturers are introducing a wider variety of semiconductor products. With many products from which to choose, consumers are able to make greater performance demands. Recognizing the significance that an integrated circuit's performance may play in the marketplace, manufacturers employ various tests to ensure that each of their respective integrated circuits (ICs) performs as intended.

One well known method of testing the performance of a particular IC is to subject the IC to what the semiconductor industry has termed an "IN-Test." To perform such a test, scannable elements within the logic of the IC are connected in a signal path to one another to form a scan chain. With the IC in a scan mode, a test vector is provided as an input signal to the IC. After allowing the IC to operate for a number of clock cycles, the internal clocks of the IC are stopped, thereby disabling the IC system logic so as to "freeze" the logic states within the scannable elements. The IC is then clocked with a separate scan clock so as to capture, or "scan" out, these logic states as an output vector. The output vector is read from an output port of the IC and compared to a reference vector to determine if the IC has operated correctly.

In performing such an IN-Test, the internal clocks are typically stopped by stopping the external oscillator that generates the internal clocks. Stopping the external oscillator in such a manner is not only inconvenient but also may result in harmful jitters.

Thus, it would be desirable to perform an IN-Test without stopping the external oscillator that provides the internal clocks to the IC.

A circuit is disclosed which allows an IN-Test to be performed on an IC without having to stop the IC's associated external oscillator. In accordance with the present invention, an IC's internal clocks are stopped by disabling the IC's internal phase-locked loops (PLL). In one embodiment, where for instance the IC employs an internal system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK and an internal bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK, the internal clocks may be stopped on either the rising edge of EBUS.sub.-- CLK, on the rising edge of SYS.sub.-- CLK, or on the synchronous rising edges of EBUS.sub.-- CLK and SYS.sub.-- CLK. These three options are hereinafter referred to as stop mode. Further, such internal clocks may be stopped for any number of different frequency relationships between the internal clocks, e.g., where for instance the frequency ratio of clocks EBUS.sub.-- CLK and SYS.sub.-- CLK is 1:1, 1:2, 3:2, and so on. The particular ratio of frequencies of bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK and system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK is hereinafter referred to as the clock mode. Information indicative of the IC's clock mode and of the desired stop mode is programmed in the IC's clock control register (CCR) as a stop instruction signal STOP.sub.-- INSTR which, in some embodiments, may be a multi-bit signal. When it is desired to stop the IC's internal clocks, the clock control register provides the signal STOP.sub.-- INSTR to a clock control circuit (CCC) which, depending upon the particular stop mode and clock mode indicated by signal STOP.sub.-- INSTR, asserts an enabling signal to a disable clock circuit (DCC). In response to this enabling signal, the disable clock circuit asserts a zero feedback signal to the internal phase-locked loop circuits of the IC and thereby forces the voltage controlled oscillators (VCO) within the phase-locked loop circuits to hold internal clocks SYS.sub.-- CLK and EBUS.sub.-- CLK at one particular logic state e.g. low. In this manner, the IC's internal clocks SYS.sub.-- CLK and EBUS.sub.-- CLK may be stopped to allow a test vector to be scanned out of the IC during an IN-Test without stopping the IC's external oscillator.

FIGS. 1A-1C are timing diagrams illustrating internal clocks EBUS.sub.-- CLK and SYS.sub.-- CLK in 1:1, 1:2, and 2:3 modes, respectively;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a clock stopping circuit in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 3 is, which is a key to FIGS. 3A and 3B, a schematic diagram of a clock control circuit in accordance with the circuit of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a disable clock circuit in accordance with the circuit of FIG. 1.

In accordance with the present invention, an IC's internal clocks may be disabled in response to a stop signal without stopping, decoupling, or otherwise tampering with the external oscillator from which the internal clocks are generated. Embodiments of the present invention may be implemented with ICs employing either one internal clock or a plurality of internal clocks having various frequency relationships with respect to one another, and to ICs having either a single scan chain clocked by one internal clock or multiple scan chains clocked by one or more different internal clocks. For simplicity, embodiments of the present invention are discussed below in the context of an IC utilizing two internal clocks, a system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK and a bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK, where the ratio of frequencies of bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK and system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK may be either 1:1, 1:2, or 2:3. Waveforms illustrating the relationship between system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK and bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK for each of the 1:1, 1:2 and 2:3 ratios are depicted in FIGS. 1A, 1B, and 1C, respectively. It is to be noted that those skilled in the art will, after reading Applicant's specification, be able to adapt embodiments described below for use with ICs employing a greater number of internal clocks and/or a greater range of frequency ratios between such internal clocks.

Further note that ICs which are described herein for illustrative purposes may have one or more scan chains clocked by system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK and/or one or more scan chains clocked by bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK. Thus, for the example IC just described, there are 9 possible combinations of clock and stop modes, i.e., 3 clock modes times 3 stop modes. Note, however, that since the bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK need not be monitored when stopping the internal clocks on the rising edge of system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK, and vice versa, these 9 possible combinations may be reduced to 5 different scenarios which are briefly described below.

1. SYS.sub.-- CLK stop

In this scenario, both internal clocks SYS.sub.-- CLK and EBUS.sub.-- CLK may be stopped on the first rising edge of clock SYS.sub.-- CLK detected after a stop signal has been asserted. Here, since only the rising edge of clock SYS.sub.-- CLK need be detected in order to stop both internal clocks, the rising edge of bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK, and thus the frequency ratio of clocks SYS.sub.-- CLK and EBUS.sub.-- CLK, is not relevant.

2. EBUS.sub.-- CLK stop

In this scenario, both internal clocks SYS.sub.-- CLK and EBUS.sub.-- CLK may be stopped on the first rising edge of clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK detected after a stop signal has been asserted. Here, since only the rising edge of clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK need be detected in order to stop both internal clocks, the rising edge of system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK, and thus the frequency ratio of clocks SYS.sub.-- CLK and EBUS.sub.-- CLK, is not relevant.

3. Synchronous 1:1 stop

In this scenario, internal clocks EBUS.sub.-- CLK and SYS.sub.-- CLK are of the same frequency (hence the 1:1 ratio) and are both stopped upon detection of the first synchronous rising edges thereof after a stop signal has been asserted.

4. Synchronous 1:2 stop

In this scenario, the frequency of clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK is twice that of system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK. Clocks EBUS.sub.-- CLK and SYS.sub.-- CLK are stopped upon detection of the first synchronous rising edges thereof after a stop signal has been asserted.

5. Synchronous 2:3 stop

In this scenario, the frequency of bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK is 1.5 times that of system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK. Both clocks are stopped upon detection of the first synchronous rising edges thereof after a stop signal has been asserted. In the discussion that follows, reference is made to FIGS. 2-4, where corresponding elements of the Figures are given identical reference numerals. Referring to FIG. 2, circuit 100 is formed within an associated IC (not shown) having a conventional clock control register (CCR) 101 and conventional phase-locked loop (PLL) circuits 102 and 103. Respective raw system and bus clock signals SYS.sub.-- CLK.sub.-- IN and EBUS.sub.-- CLK.sub.-- IN are generated by an external oscillator (not shown) and provided to respective phase-locked loop circuits 102 and 103 which, in turn, generate respective internal system and bus clock signals SYS.sub.-- CLK and EBUS.sub.-- CLK in a well known manner. Note that embodiments of the present invention described below may be used with integrated circuits which generate internal clock signals SYS.sub.-- CLK and EBUS.sub.-- CLK using means other than phase-locked loop circuits.

Information indicative of the clock mode e.g. frequency ratio of system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK and bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK and of the desired stop mode to be used in stopping these internal clocks, so as to facilitate an IN-Test, is programmed into clock control register (CCR) 101. When it is desired to stop system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK and bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK, clock control register 101 provides an instruction signal STOP.sub.-- INSTR to clock control circuit (CCC) 200 which, in response thereto, provides an enabling signal to disable clock circuit (DCC) 300. Note that in some embodiments instruction signal STOP.sub.-- INSTR may be a multi-bit signal. Once enabled, disable clock circuit 300 provides inactive feedback signals SYS.sub.-- FB and EBUS.sub.-- FB to phase-locked loop circuits 102 and 103, respectively. In this manner, phase-locked loop circuits 102 and 103 hold system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK and bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK at a constant logic level e.g. low, respectively, thereby internally stopping system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK and bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK without affecting the operation of the external oscillator used to generate system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK and bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK.

Referring also to FIG. 3, clock control circuit 200 includes five subcircuits 210, 220, 230, 240, and 250 which are responsible for providing an enabling signal to disable clock circuit 300 in accordance with the five above-mentioned stopping scenarios SYS.sub.-- BUS stop, EBUS.sub.-- CLK stop, Synchronous 1:1, Synchronous 1:2, and Synchronous 2:3, respectively. In one embodiment, subcircuits 230, 240, and 250 provide in response to a signal STOP.sub.-- CLK extracted from instruction signal STOP.sub.-- INSTR, enabling signals STOP.sub.-- CLK.sub.-- SYNCH.sub.-- 1:1, STOP.sub.-- CLK.sub.-- SYNCH.sub.-- 1:2, and STOP.sub.-- CLK.sub.-- SYNCH.sub.-- 2:3, respectively, to associated input terminals of a 4:1 multiplexer 201. The output terminal of multiplexer 201 is coupled to a 4:1 multiplexer 202.

Subcircuits 210 and 220 generate, in response to signal STOP.sub.-- CLK, respective enabling signals STOP.sub.-- CLK.sub.-- EBUS and STOP.sub.-- CLK.sub.-- SYS which are provided to associated input terminals of multiplexer 202. Note that logic low signals may also be provided to respective input terminals of multiplexers 201 and 202, as shown in FIG. 3, to force the signals generated at the output terminals thereof to logic zero. Bits ›1:0! and ›3:2! of instruction signal STOP.sub.-- INSTR are provided to the select terminals of multiplexers 201 and 202, respectively, and thus in accordance with the information programmed in clock control register 101 determine which of the output signals generated by subcircuits 210, 220, 230, 240, and 250 is sent as an enabling signal to disable clock circuit 300. In other embodiments, instruction signal STOP.sub.-- INSTR stored in clock control register 101 may contain five enabling signals each independently activating subcircuits 210, 220, 230, 240, and 250. In such embodiments, multiplexers 201 and 202 are not necessary.

Subcircuits 210, 220, and 230 are, in one embodiment, conventional D-type flip-flops. Flip-flop 210 clocks signal STOP.sub.-- CLK on the rising edge of bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK to generate signal STOP.sub.-- CLK.sub.-- EBUS. Thus, when signal STOP.sub.-- CLK is driven high, signal STOP.sub.-- CLK.sub.-- EBUS transitions high on the next rising edge of bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK and thereby provides a logic high enabling signal to disable clock circuit 300 via multiplexers 201 and 202. In a similar manner, flip-flop 220 clocks system clock STOP.sub.-- CLK on the rising edge of system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK to generate signal STOP.sub.-- CLK.sub.-- SYS and thereby enables disable clock circuit 300 upon detection of the first rising edge of system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK after signal STOP.sub.-- CLK transitions high.

When stopping system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK and bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK on the synchronous rising edges thereof, the enabling of disable clock circuit 300 is conditioned upon the alignment of rising edges of system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK and bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK (and of course upon signal STOP.sub.-- CLK being asserted high by clock control register 101). Note, however, that where the clock frequency ratio is 1:1, bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK and system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK are replicas of one another and are thus necessarily aligned with respect to each other. As a result, when operating in the synchronous 1:1 scenario, it is necessary to detect the rising edge of only one of the clocks. Accordingly, signal STOP.sub.-- CLK.sub.-- SYNCH.sub.-- 1:1 may be generated by D flip-flop 230 in a manner similar to that discussed above with respect to flip-flops 210 and 220. Note that although shown in FIG. 3 as clocking STOP.sub.-- CLK on the rising edge of bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK, flip-flop 230 may in other embodiments generate signal STOP.sub.-- CLK.sub.-- SYNCH.sub.-- 1:1 by clocking signal STOP.sub.-- CLK on the rising edge of system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK.

Subcircuit 240 includes D-type flip-flops 241 and 242 which clock signal STOP.sub.-- CLK on the rising edges of bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK and system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK, respectively. The signals generated at the Q output terminals of flip-flops 241 and 242 are gated in an XOR gate 243 and an AND gate 244, as shown in FIG. 3, to generate signal STOP.sub.-- CLK.sub.-- SYNCH.sub.-- 1:2. In this manner, subcircuit 240 causes signal STOP.sub.-- CLK.sub.-- SYNCH.sub.-- 1:2 to transition high, thereby providing a high enabling signal to disable clock circuit 300 via multiplexers 201 and 202, upon detection of the first synchronous rising edges of bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK and system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK after signal STOP.sub.-- CLK has been asserted high.

Subcircuit 250 includes resettable D-type flip-flops 251 and 252 and a state machine 253. Bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK and system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK are provided as input signals to state machine 253. The logic states of the bit signals P.sub.-- STATE›1! and P.sub.-- STATE›0! generated at the respective Q output terminals of flip-flops 251 and 252 and provided to state machine 253 indicate in binary format the present state of subcircuit 250. For example, the bit pair P.sub.-- STATE›1!="1" and P.sub.-- STATE›0!="0" denotes the binary number "10" and is therefore indicative of state 2. State machine 253, in response to the state of bits P.sub.-- STATE›1! and P.sub.-- STATE›0!, system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK and bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK, determines the next state of subcircuit 250, as indicated in binary form by the state of bits N.sub.-- STATE›1! and N.sub.-- STATE›0!. Bits N.sub.-- STATE›1! and N.sub.-- STATE›0! are provided to the D input terminals of flip-flops 251 and 252, respectively, and are clocked on the rising edge of system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK by flip-flops 251 and 252, respectively. Bit P.sub.-- STATE›1! is also provided to a first input terminal of an AND gate 254, and bit P.sub.-- STATE›0! is provided to a second input terminal of AND gate 254 via an inverter 254a.

State machine 253, which may be of conventional design, allows for three possible states, state 0, state 1, and state 2, which correspond to the three intervals indicated in the timing diagram of FIG. 1C. The first state i.e. state 0, where the state of bits P.sub.-- STATE›1:0! equals "00", is the default state. Note that in state 0 the low state of bit P.sub.-- STATE›1! forces a low signal at the output terminal of AND gate 254 which, in turn, propagates through AND gate 255. The normally low signal at the Q output terminal of flip-flop 257 is provided as the select signal of multiplexer 256. Hence, this low state of bit P.sub.-- STATE›1! passes through 2:1 multiplexer 256 and flip-flops 257-259, thereby forcing signal STOP.sub.-- CLK.sub.-- SYNCH.sub.--2:3 low.

If, while in state 0, state machine 253 detects that bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK is high and system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK is low, state machine 253 advances subcircuit 250 to state 1 by driving bit N.sub.-- STATE›1! low and bit N.sub.-- STATE›0! high. Subcircuit 250 will remain in state 1 until system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK and bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK are simultaneously low. Also note that in state 1, the low state of bit P.sub.-- STATE›1! forces signal STOP.sub.-- CLK.sub.-- SYNCH.sub.--2:3 low.

If, while in state 1, state machine 253 detects that bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK and system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK are both low, state machine 253 drives bit N.sub.-- STATE›1! high and bit N.sub.-- STATE›0! low, thereby advancing subcircuit 250 to state 2. With bit P.sub.-- STATE›1! high and bit P.sub.-- STATE›0! low, a logic high signal appears at the output terminal of AND gate 254 and is provided to input terminals of AND gates 255 and 260. If clock control register 101 has not instructed circuit 100 to stop system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK and bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK, signal STOP.sub.-- CLK remains low and therefore forces a low signal at the output terminal of AND gate 255 which, in turn, forces signal STOP.sub.-- CLK.sub.-- SYNCH.sub.--2:3 low. Note that the low state of signal STOP.sub.-- CLK also propagates through AND gate 260, resettable D-type flip-flop 261, and AND gate 262 to force signal STP.sub.-- LOGIC.sub.-- RST low, thereby allowing state machine 253 to operate in a normal manner in determining the next state of subcircuit 250. The next state of subcircuit 250 depends upon the bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK and system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK. A truth table describing the operation of state machine 253 in generating the next state (N.sub.-- STATE›1:0!) from the present state (P.sub.-- STATE›1:0!) and from bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK and system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK is shown below in Table 1.

On the other hand, if clock control register 101 drives signal STOP.sub.-- CLK high while subcircuit 250 is in state 2, high signals appear at the output terminals of AND gates 255 and 260. The high signal at the output terminal of AND gate 255 propagates through multiplexer 256 and is clocked on the rising edge of bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK by flip-flop 257 which, in one embodiment, is a resettable D-type flip-flop. The resulting high signal at the Q output terminal of flip-flop 257 is successively clocked on the rising edges of bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK by D-type flip-flops 258 and 259 which form a greatest common denominator circuit. Accordingly, flip-flop 259 drives signal STOP.sub.-- CLK.sub.-- SYNCH.sub.-- 2:3 high and thereby provides a logic high enabling signal to disable clock circuit 300.

Note that the high signal at the Q output terminal of flip-flop 257 forces multiplexer 256 to select itself, i.e., the logic one state of the signal at the Q output terminal of flip-flop 257, and thereby ensures that signal STOP.sub.-- CLK.sub.-- SYNCH.sub.-- 2:3 remains high for a sufficient period of time to enable disable clock circuit 300. Also note that signal STOP.sub.-- CLK.sub.-- SYNCH.sub.-- 2:3 may be forced low by setting signal CLK.sub.-- CTRL.sub.-- CLR low which, in turn, resets the signal at the Q output terminal of flip-flop 257 low.

The high signal appearing at the output terminal of AND gate 260 is clocked on the rising edge of EBUSCLK by flip-flop 261. Assuming an active low reset signal RESET.sub.-- L has not been enabled, AND gate 262 drives a signal STP.sub.-- LOGIC.sub.-- RST high. The high state of signal STP.sub.-- LOGIC.sub.-- RST is provided to the active high reset terminals of flip-flops 251 and 252, thereby resetting subcircuit 250 to state 0. Once reset, subcircuit 250 continues to operate in the manner described above.

Disable clock circuit 300 includes an AND gate 301 having a first input terminal coupled to receive an inverted replica of the enabling signal generated as discussed above by clock control circuit 200. AND gate 301 has a second input terminal coupled to receive an active low external power down signal EPD. In this manner, the enabling signal received from clock control circuit 200 is inverted and then gated with the high state of signal EPD to generate an active low stop signal at an output terminal of AND gate 301. 4-input AND gates 302 and 303 each have a first input terminal coupled to receive this active low stop signal provided at the output terminal of AND gate 301. Second and third input terminals of each of AND gates 302 and 303 are coupled to receive active low signals PLL.sub.-- BYPASS and TCK.sub.-- EN (TCK enable) signals, respectively, which are generated in a well known manner by sources external to circuit 100. The fourth input terminal of AND gate 302 is coupled to receive system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK from the VCO terminal of phase-locked loop circuit 102, and the fourth input terminal of AND gate 303 is coupled to receive bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK from the VCO terminal of phase-locked loop circuit 103.

The signal output from AND gate 302 is gated with an active low signal SCAN.sub.-- CLK.sub.-- SYS via an OR gate 304, while the signal output from AND gate 303 is gated with an active low signal SCAN.sub.-- CLK.sub.-- EBUS via an OR gate 305. Signals SCAN.sub.-- CLK.sub.-- EBUS and SCAN.sub.-- CLK.sub.-- SYS, which may be used to independently disable bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK and system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK, respectively, are generated by sources external to circuit 100. The output terminal of OR gate 304 is coupled to a feedback terminal of phase-locked loop circuit 102 to provide feedback signal SYS.sub.-- FB to phase-locked loop circuit 102. The output terminal of OR gate 305 is coupled to a feedback terminal of phase-locked loop circuit 103 to provide feedback signal EBUS.sub.-- FB to phase-locked loop circuit 103.

Disable clock circuit 300 operates as follows. Assume that control signals EPD, TCK.sub.-- EN, PLL.sub.-- BYPASS, SCAN.sub.-- CLK.sub.-- SYS, and SCAN.sub.-- CLK.sub.-- EBUS are held high and are thus inactive. During normal operation of circuit 100's associated IC, i.e., when it is not desired to stop system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK and bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK, clock control circuit 200 provides a logic low enabling signal to disable clock circuit 300. This logic low signal is inverted and gated with the normally high state of signal EPD to provide a high signal to the first input terminal of AND gate 302. Since control signals PLL.sub.-- BYPASS, TCK.sub.-- EN, and SCAN.sub.-- CLK.sub.-- SYS are also high and thus not asserted, system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK propagates unaltered through disable clock circuit 300 and is provided as feedback signal SYS.sub.-- FB to phase-locked loop circuit 102. Similarly, bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK propagates through disable clock circuit 300 and is provided as feedback signal EBUS.sub.-- FB to phase-locked loop circuit 103. In this manner, disable clock circuit 300 allows phase-locked loop circuits 102 and 103 to operate in a normal manner when it is not desired to stop the internal clocks e.g. system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK and bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK.

When it is desired to stop the internal clocks, clock control circuit 200, as described above, asserts a high enabling signal in response to a stop instruction signal STOP.sub.-- INSTR received from clock control register 101. This logic high enabling signal is inverted and gated with the high state of signal EPD via AND gate 301 to produce a logic low signal at the output terminal thereof. This logic low signal appears at the first input terminal of AND gate 302, thereby forcing the signal provided at the output terminal of AND gate 302 low which, in turn, forces the signal provided at the output terminal of OR gate 304 e.g. signal SYS.sub.-- FB low. In response to this low state of signal SYS.sub.-- FB, the VCO output terminal of phase-locked loop circuit 102, and thus system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK, transitions low. In a similar manner, the low enabling signal propagates through AND gate 303 and OR gate 305 to force feedback signal EBUS.sub.-- FB low which, in turn, results in phase-locked loop circuit 103 holding bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK low. Note that phase-locked loop circuits 102 and 103 will continue to hold respective internal clock signals SYS.sub.-- CLK and EBUS.sub.-- CLK low until clock control circuit 200 re-asserts a low enabling signal to disable clock circuit 300. Accordingly, circuit 100 is able to disable and thereby effectively stop an associated IC's internal clock signals e.g. system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK and bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK without altering or tampering with the external oscillator from which such internal clock signals are generated.

Note that system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK and bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK may be simultaneously disabled as described above with respect to disable clock circuit 300 by forcing any of control signals EPD, PLL.sub.-- BYPASS, or TCK.sub.-- EN low. In addition, system clock SYS.sub.-- CLK and bus clock EBUS.sub.-- CLK may be independently disabled as described above with respect to disable clock circuit 300 by asserting respective control signals SCAN.sub.-- CLK.sub.-- SYS and SCAN.sub.-- CLK.sub.-- EBUS low.

While particular embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from this invention in its broader aspects and, therefore, the appended claims encompass all such changes and modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of this invention.