Asynchronous interlocked pipelined CMOS circuits operating at 3.3-4.5 GHz

Abstract

Chip performance, power, noise, and clock synchronization are becoming formidable challenges as microprocessor performance moves into the GHz regime and beyond. Interlocked pipelined CMOS (IPCMOS), an asynchronous clocking technique, helps address these challenges. This paper shows how a typical block (e.g., Block D) is interlocked with all the blocks with which it interacts. In the forward direction, dedicated Valid signals emulate the worst-case path through each driving block and thus determine when data can be latched within the typical block. In the reverse direction, Acknowledge signals indicate that data has been received by the subsequent blocks and that new data may be processed within the typical block. In this interlocked approach local clocks are generated only when there is an operation to perform.