US Patent 7728614 Operating characteristic measurement device and methods thereof

A device includes an integrated circuit device having a sensor to measure an operating characteristic of the device. The sensor provides information based on the measured operating characteristic to a trigger module. In response to the information indicating the measured operating characteristic meets a threshold associated with a device failure, the trigger module provides an indication to a storage element, which stores information indicating the threshold has been met. In the event of a failure of the integrated circuit device, the storage element can be accessed by a device analyzer to retrieve the stored information to determine the cause of the device failure.