According to one embodiment, a terminal control substrate includes a base plate mounted on a terminal device, a first module fixed to the base plate, an external connection terminal fixed to the base plate and to which a component including a second module being a substitute for the first module is attachable, a controller configured to perform control in the terminal device by using the first module or the second module, and a switching unit configured to switch a connection destination of the controller to any one of the first module and the external connection terminal to which the second module is attached.

A volatile logic circuit has a storage node, and stores inputted information. A plurality of non-volatile elements are connected to the storage node of the volatile logic circuit through the same connection gate, and control lines for control for these non-volatile elements are connected to the respective non-volatile elements, every non-volatile element. A plurality of non-volatile elements are connected to the volatile logic circuit through the same connection gate in such a way, thereby enabling the yield to be enhanced.

A system for limiting or diminishing current to unpowered Serializer/Deserializer (SerDes) circuitry is provided. The system comprises receiver input termination circuitry and a cold spare circuitry. The receiver input circuitry comprises a termination resistor and an N-type metal oxide silicon field effect transistor (MOSFET). The cold spare circuitry comprises a first MOSFET and a second MOSFET. When the system is powered on, an input current flows to the receiver input termination circuit to be discharged by the N-type MOSFET which is electrically connected to a ground. When the system is powered off, the input current flows to the cold spare circuitry to discharge the input current. Discharging electrons between the first MOSFET and the second MOSFET depends on the polarity of an accumulated voltage.

In accordance with an embodiment, an electronic circuit includes at least five redundant circuit parts, which are configured to execute the same function in order to provide redundancy. The at least five redundant circuit parts are arranged in such a way that critical nodes of fewer than half of the circuit parts lie on an imaginary straight line.

A tristate output buffer includes a first branch with a first buffer, and a second branch with a second buffer. The first buffer includes a supply port, a ground port, an output port, two switchable semiconductor elements of a first type, and two switchable semiconductor elements of a second type. Switching behavior of the switchable semiconductor elements of the first type differs from switching behavior of the switchable semiconductor elements of the second type. The two switchable semiconductor elements of the first type are connected in series and are between the supply port and the output port such that they can be put in a conductive state independent of each other. The two switchable semiconductor elements of the second type are connected in series and are between the ground port and the output port such that they can be put in a conductive state independent of each other.

A reconfigurable circuit suitable for a redundant circuit of a storage device is provided. A programmable logic element (PLE) includes k logic circuits (e.g., XNOR circuits), k configuration memories (CM), and another logic circuit (e.g., an AND circuit) to which the outputs of the k logic circuits are input. The output of the AND circuit represents whether k input data of the PLE all correspond to configuration data stored in the k CMs. For example, when the address of a defective block in the storage device is stored in the CM and address data of the storage device the access of which is requested is input to the PLE, whether the defective block is accessible can be determined from the output of the AND circuit.

An overvoltage protection device including an output stage, a first switch and a first load providing circuit is provided. The output stage has a first input terminal to receive a first signal, and generates an output signal at an output terminal of the output stage according to the first signal. A first terminal of the first switch is coupled to the first input terminal of the output stage, and a control terminal of the first switch receives a second signal. The first signal is the delayed second signal. The first load providing circuit is coupled to a second terminal of the first switch. The first load providing circuit provides an impedance to the first input terminal when the first switch is turned on.

In accordance with an embodiment, an electronic circuit includes at least five redundant circuit parts, which are configured to execute the same function in order to provide redundancy. The at least five redundant circuit parts are arranged in such a way that critical nodes of fewer than half of the circuit parts lie on an imaginary straight line.

A method for detecting errors is performed on a data string which includes an information portion and a redundancy portion. The information portion includes two or more sub-strings. The method includes generating respective redundancy words for each sub-string by encoding each sub-string with a separable robust code. A composite redundancy word is generated from respective redundancy words. An error is flagged when the redundancy portion of said data string differs from the composite redundancy word.

The disclosure relates to an integrated circuit comprising: a first voltage terminal; a second voltage terminal; and a plurality of logic cells, comprising one or more field effect transistors having a p-type channel and one or more field effect transistors having an n-type channel. The plurality of logic cells comprises a regular subset of cells and a spare subset of cells. Electrical connectors are arranged to: connect the gates of the regular subset of cells in order to provide a functional logic arrangement; connect the gates of the one or more field effect transistors having a p-type channel of the spare subset of cells to the first voltage terminal; and connect the gates of the one or more field effect transistors having an n-type channel of the spare subset of cells to the second voltage terminal.