Clocking Part 2

Clocking
For modern processors, cycle time is around 1620 FO4 delays, of which registers take 2-4 FO4 delays Power consumption dominated by clock load, both distribution network and end loads (latches, prechargers)
70% of total power in IBM POWER4 design

Simple single-edge triggered registers are fine for most ASIC designs. This lecture well examine what is happening in high performance designs.

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L18 Clocks Part 2

6.371 Fall 2002

11/6/02

L18 Clocks Part 2

Edge Triggered Timing Constraints

TPmin/TPmax Combinational Logic CLK1 CLK2

Two Phase Latch Based Design

Combinational Logic 1 CLK1 CLK1 CLK2 Non-overlap times CLK2 Combinational Logic 2 CLK1

Slow path timing constraint Tcyc TCQmax + TPmax + Tsetup+ Tskew Fast path timing constraint TCQmin + TPmin Thold + Tskew

worst case is when CLK2 is earlier/later than CLK1

Divide cycle into two phases

Fast path constraint cannot be fixed by slowing clock fatal to chip design Skew reduces cycle time
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worst case is when CLK2 is earlier/later than CLK1

Latches driven by two non-overlapping clocks Can guarantee no fast path problems with larger non-overlap
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phase 2 latches can only sample values generated from phase 1 latch outputs, and vice versa.

Two Phase Timing

A CLK1 CLK1 CLK2 A B C D TP1max TDQmax TP2max Tx TNO Ty Combinational Logic 1 B CLK2 TNO Tz TDQmax C Combinational Logic 2 D A CLK1 CLK1 CLK2 A B C D Tx

Time Borrowing
Combinational Logic 1 TNO Tsetup TCQmax TP1max TNO B CLK2 C C.L. D 2

In steady state, Tz Tx, therefore minimum cycle time Tcyc TP1max + TP2max + 2TDQmax Non-overlap time, TNO, can be adjusted such that no hold time violations are possible: TNO + TCQmin - Tskew Thold
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Can place latches where convenient in logic path Maximum time in one combinational logic block is TP1max Tcyc TCQmax Tsetup TNO Tskew
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Single Clock Latch Based Design

Combinational Logic 1 CLK CLK Combinational Logic 2 CLK

Pipelining Domino Logic

Domino circuits require monotonic change in input signal during evaluation phase - cannot easily guarantee this with most edge triggered devices. Transparent latches allow setup of logic inputs before clock edge.
X Q
NMOS

CLK Q X

precharge

eval.

Two phase non-overlapping system requires distribution of two clocks. Can distribute single clock signal, and invert locally at latch. Clock skew can cause overlap between transparent phases of CLK and inverted CLK, so must check for fast path hold time violations. Very common clocking scheme for full custom chips, works well with pipelined domino logic.

CLK

CLK-Q delay discharges precharge node CLK X Q

NMOS

Degraded level eval.

precharge

Q X Q setup before clock edge

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CLK
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Pulse Latches
By using narrow clock pulses, can have only a single latch in any combinational loop. Used in Cray-1, and in many high-performance (Pentium-4) and low-power microprocessors (XScale).
Tw B A TCQmin TPmin TPmax Thold Thold Tsetup CLK A B

Double-Edge Triggered Registers

Clock load of flip-flops is significant fraction of total chip power. Can reduce clock frequency in half by using a double-edge triggered flip-flop.

Combinational Logic

1 Q

CLK

D
B

CLK
A B Q Latch Sample Latch Sample Sample Latch Sample A B A Latch B

Cycle time, Tcyc,min TDQmax + TPmax + Tsetup + Tskew Tw Tw is pulse width, and gives maximum time borrowing for previous cycle Two-sided timing constraint on pulse width
Tsetup < Tw < TCQmin + TPmin - Thold - Tskew
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CLK

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Pentium-4 Pulse Latches

Pentium-4 distributes 50% duty cycle global clock at advertised frequency (e.g., 2.8GHz Pentium-4 has 2.8GHz clock) Fast ALU section of Pentium-4 runs at twice advertised clock frequency using pulse latches driven from both edges of the distributed clock. Clock buffers have duty cycle correction circuitry to ensure 50% duty cycle. GCLK (2.8 GHz) PCLK (5.6 GHz)

Flip-Flops Timing

GCLK

PCLK

[ Stojanovic and Oklobdzija ]

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Crossing Time Domains

Common to have to communicate between logic blocks running at unrelated clock frequencies
TCLK Clock TCLK Clock Domain Domain TCLK RCLK Possible setup time violation Possible hold time violation RCLK Clock RCLK Clock Domain Domain
D CLK

Metastability
Voltage CLK
metastable

Feedback

D Observation Interval, t Time

TCLK

RCLK

Sampling latch

Probability of failure (i.e., not valid 1 or 0) when observed time t after clock edge - t r F(t) = k e Parameters k and r functions of latch design. r is called the time constant of resolution and is primarily controlled by the gain-bandwidth product of the feedback loop (dont use dynamic latches as synchronizers!). Error probability decreases exponentially with t but always some chance of failure.
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If setup and hold times are violated, flip-flops might hang in a metastable state.
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Metastability Failure Calculations

-t/ r ff = tW fT fC e
Frequency of failures for sampling window (setup+hold) of tW, sampling frequency fC and input transition frequency of fT For 1GHz sampling clock, 100MHz transitions, 50ps setup+hold, 50ps time constant, 950ps observation time ff = 0.03Hz (Mean Time Between Failures: 33 seconds) Increase observation time to 1950ps (two cycles) ff = 5.8x10-11 Hz (MTBF 550 years) Increase observation time to 2950ps (three cycles) ff = 1.2x10-19 Hz (MTBF 266 billion years)
TCLK

Synchronizers
RCLK

Use pipelined registers to give full RCLK cycle to resolve asynchronous input.

TCLK CLKA
CLKB

Use N interleaved registers, each clocked at 1/N of RCLK rate, to increase resolution interval by factor of N without decreasing signal bandwidth.
RCLK
RCLK CLKA CLKB CLKC

CLKC

Rotating Select

Observation Interval

Repeat Interval

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