We "naturalize" the handshake communication links of a self-timed system by assigning the capabilities of filling and draining a link and of storing its full or empty status to the link itself. This contrasts with assigning these capabilities to the joints, the modules connected by the links, as was previously done. Under naturalized communication, the differences between Micropipeline, GasP, Mousetrap, and Click circuits are seen only in the links -the joints become identical; past, present, and future link and joint designs become interchangeable.We also "naturalize" the actions of a self-timed system, giving actions status equal to states -for the purpose of silicon test and debug. We partner traditional scan test techniques dedicated to state with new test capabilities dedicated to action. To each and every joint, we add a novel proper-start-stop circuit, called MrGO, that permits or forbids the action of that joint. MrGO, pronounced "Mister GO," makes it possible to (1) exit an initial state cleanly to start circuit operation in a delay-insensitive manner, (2) stop a running circuit in a clean and delay-insensitive manner, (3) single-or multi-step circuit operations for test and debug, and (4) test sub-systems at speed.
No abstract
Library characterization and 'Static Timing Analysis' (STA) are widely used in the design of modern CMOS integrated circuits to confirm that critical timing constraints are met. While many commercial tools are available to do timing validation using library characterization and static timing analysis, their operation depends on calculations relative to a global synchronous clock. This thesis applies timing validation to circuits from which the global synchronous clock is absent, making application of commercial tools difficult. Previous work at the University of Southern California (USC) showed how to overcome the incompatibility of commercial STA tools for asynchronous circuits. This thesis shows how to overcome the incompatibility of library characterization for asynchronous circuits, and ties the results to the STA solution of USC. This work was partly sponsored under DARPA grant number HR0011-10-1-0069 for "Fleet Studies". In addition to DARPA, I would like to thank all the people who have helped and inspired me during my thesis work. I especially want to thank my advisor, Drs. Marly Roncken, for her guidance during my research and study at Portland State University (PSU). Her perpetual energy and enthusiasm in research were a great motivation to me. She was always accessible and willing to help me with my research. She is the greatest personality I ever met in my 24 years life time. I admire her personality after Swami Vivekananda. I was delighted to interact with Dr. Ivan Sutherland. It was a great opportunity to participate in his seminars on GasP circuits, and an even greater opportunity to get the chance to work with him on a timing flow for these circuits. His insight in asynchronous circuit design is amazing. He explains anything that looks like "eschew obfuscation" into something as obvious as "keep it simple". 0.1 To me, he defines what a world-class researcher and teacher are about. The GasP seminar class and my research with Marly and Ivan at the Asynchronous Research Center (ARC) were both a turning point in my life and a wonderful experience. The chance to publish and present my research work at the ASYNC 2010 conference 0.1 The text "eschew obfuscation" is on one of his sweatshirts. ii in Grenoble, France, broadened my view of the world, and enabled me to meet other researchers and students working in the domain of asynchronous circuits. I am much obliged to Professor Xiaoyu Song, for agreeing to be my thesis advisor. One simply could not wish for a more friendly and understanding advisor. I feel blessed by his encouragement to pursue this thesis topic, and to help me plan it. Professor Douglas V. Hall, and Professor Christof Teuscher deserve special thanks as my thesis committee members. I sincerely appreciate their participation and technical feedback. I want to thank Prasad Joshi, Mallika Prakash, and Professor Peter Beerel from the University of Southern California (USC), for making their static timing analysis flow available, and for sending me their publications and any scripts they could ...
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.