Quasi Delay-Insensitive High Speed Two-Phase Protocol Asynchronous Wrapper for Network on Chips

Abstract

For the purpose of solving the shortcomings of low speed and high power consumption of asynchronous wrapper in conventional network on chips, this paper proposes a quasi delay-insensitive high-speed two-phase operation mode asynchronous wrapper. The metastable state in sampling data procedure can be avoided by detecting the write/read signal, which can be used to stop the clock. Empty/full level of the registers can be determined by detecting the pulse signal of the two-phase asynchronous register, and then control the wrapper to sample input/output data. Sender wrapper and receiver wrapper consist of C elements and threshold gates, which ensure the quasi delay-insensitive characteristics and enhance the robustness. Simulations under different technology corners are implemented based on SMIC 0.18 µm standard CMOS. Sender wrapper and receiver wrapper allow synchronous modules to work at the speed of 3.08 GHz and 2.98 GHz respectively with average dynamic power consumption of 1.727 mW and 1.779 mW. Its advantages of high-throughput, low-power, scalability and robustness make it a viable option for high-speed low-power interconnection of network-on-chip.