Synchronizing systems on a chip using a shared clock

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12105553-B2
Application number	US-202318236732-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 22, 2023
Priority date	Oct 6, 2021
Publication date	Oct 1, 2024
Grant date	Oct 1, 2024

Abstract

An electronic eyewear device includes first and second systems on a chip (SoCs) having independent time bases that are synchronized by generating a common clock signal from a clock generator of the first SoC and simultaneously applying the common clock signal to a first counter of the first SoC and a second counter of the second SoC whereby the first counter and the second counter count clock edges of the common clock. The clock counts are shared through an interface between the first SoC and the second SoC and compared to each other. When the clock counts are different, a clock count of the first counter or the second counter is adjusted to cause the clock counts to match each other. The adjusted clock count is synchronized to the respective clocks of the first and second SoCs, thus synchronizing the first and second SoCs to each other.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of synchronizing first and second systems-on-chip (SoCs) of an electronic eyewear device, the first and second SoCs having independent time bases, the method comprising:
a first clock generator of the first SoC generating a common clock;
simultaneously applying a reset pulse to the first SoC and the second SoC;
simultaneously applying the common clock to a first counter of the first SoC to generate a first counter value from counted clock edges of the common clock and to a second counter of the second SoC to generate a second counter value from counted clock edges of the common clock, wherein the first counter and the second counter have independent time bases;
comparing the first counter value and the second counter value;
when a difference between the first counter value and the second counter value is identified, adjusting a counter value of at least one of the first counter or the second counter to cause the first counter value of the first counter and the second counter value of the second counter to match each other; and
after the adjusting, using the first counter value of the first counter to synchronize to a clock output by the first clock generator of the first SoC and the second counter value of the second counter to synchronize to a clock output by a second clock generator of the second SoC so as to synchronize the clocks output by the first clock generator and the second clock generator to each other.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising applying the reset pulse to the first SoC and the second SoC before the first SoC starts the first counter and the second SoC starts the second counter at 0 with a same shared clock edge after reset.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising applying an initial synchronization message to the first SoC and the second SoC before the first SoC starts the first counter and the second SoC starts the second counter at 0 with a same shared clock edge after reset.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first clock generator generating the common clock comprises dividing a clock signal from a crystal of the first clock generator to generate the common clock.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first counter of the first SoC is accessible to all layers of a first software stack of the first SoC and the second counter of the second SoC is accessible to all layers of a second software stack of the second SoC.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein applying the reset pulse to the first SoC and the second SoC comprises applying an out of band interrupt or manual reset pulse to the first counter and the second counter.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein adjusting a counter value of at least one of the first counter or the second counter to cause the counter values of the first counter and the second counter to match each other comprises setting the counter values of the first counter and the second counter to a same count.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first counter or the second counter comprises a hardware counter.

9. An electronic eyewear device comprising:
a first system-on-chip (SoC) comprising a first counter and a first clock generator that generates at least one clock signal for the first SoC and a common clock signal derived from the at least one clock signal;
a second SoC comprising a second counter and a second clock generator that generates at least one clock signal for the second SoC, the first clock generator and the second clock generator having independent time bases and the common clock signal being simultaneously applied to the first counter and the second counter upon reset of the first counter and the second counter whereby the first counter and the second counter count clock edges of the common clock; and
a computer readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon that are executable by at least one of the first SoC or the second SoC to cause the at least one of the first SoC or the second SoC to perform operations for synchronizing the first SoC and the second SoC, the operations including:
simultaneously applying a reset pulse to the first SoC and the second SoC;
simultaneously applying the common clock to a first counter of the first SoC to generate a first counter value from counted clock edges of the common clock and to a second counter of the second SoC to generate a second counter value from counted clock edges of the common clock, wherein the first counter and the second counter have independent time bases;
comparing the first counter value and the second counter value;
when a difference between the first counter value and the second counter value is identified, adjusting a counter value of at least one of the first counter or the second counter to cause the first counter value of the first counter and the second counter value of the second counter to match each other; and
after the adjusting, using the first counter value of the first counter to synchronize to a clock output by the first clock generator of the first SoC and the second counter value of the second counter to synchronize to a clock output by a second clock generator of the second SoC so as to synchronize the clocks output by the first clock generator and the second clock generator to each other.

10. The electronic eyewear device of claim 9 , wherein the first clock generator comprises a divider and a crystal, the divider generating the common clock signal by dividing a clock signal from the crystal.

11. The electronic eyewear device of claim 9 , wherein at least one of the first SoC or the second SoC provides the reset pulse to the first counter and the second counter to reset the first counter and the second counter.

12. The electronic eyewear device of claim 11 , wherein at least one of the first SoC or the second SoC applies the reset pulse to the first counter and the second counter when the at least one of the first SoC or the second SoC is rebooted or changes power state.

13. The electronic eyewear device of claim 9 , further comprising a reset line connecting the first counter and the second counter for applying an out of band interrupt or manual reset pulse to the first counter and the second counter.

14. The electronic eyewear device of claim 9 , wherein the operations further include applying the reset pulse to the first SoC and the second SoC before the first SoC starts the first counter and the second SoC starts the second counter at 0 with a same shared clock edge after reset.

15. The electronic eyewear device of claim 9 , wherein the operations further include applying an initial synchronization message to the first SoC and the second SoC before the first SoC starts the first counter and the second SoC starts the second counter at 0 with a same shared clock edge after reset.

16. The electronic eyewear device of claim 9 , wherein the first counter of the first SoC is accessible to all layers of a first software stack of the first SoC and the second counter of the second SoC is accessible to all layers of a second software stack of the second SoC.

17. The electronic eyewear device of claim 9 , wherein the operation of adjusting a counter value of at least one of the first counter or the second counter to cause the counter values of the first counter and the second counter to match each other comprises setting the counter values of the first counter and the second counter to a same count.

18. The electronic eyewear device of claim 9 , wherein at least one of the first counter or the second counter comprises a hardware counter.

Assignees

• Snap Inc

Inventors

• Ahn Samuel
• Heger Jason
• Ryuma Dmitry

Classifications

• G06F15/17325

  Synchronisation; Hardware support therefor (intertask synchronisation G06F9/52) · CPC title

• G06F1/14

  Time supervision arrangements, e.g. real time clock · CPC title

• G06F3/011

  Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality (blind teaching G09B21/00) · CPC title

• G06F1/163 Primary

  Wearable computers, e.g. on a belt · CPC title

• G06F2213/0026

  PCI express · CPC title