Patent 7587571 was granted and assigned to Qimonda on September, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
An integrated circuit comprising a first terminal for exchanging signals; an evaluation unit coupled to the first terminal, the evaluation unit evaluating a signal level applied to the first terminal to determine whether or not the signal level corresponds to a predetermined signal level; and a switching unit coupled to the first terminal and to the evaluation unit, the switching unit admitting signal exchange via the first terminal if the evaluation unit does not determine the predetermined signal level, the switching unit cutting off signal exchange via the first terminal if the evaluation unit determines the predetermined signal level.