Bi-Synchronous FIFO for Synchronous Circuit Communication Well Suited for Network-on-Chip in GALS Architectures

Abstract

The distribution of a synchronous clock in system-on-chip (SoC) has become a problem, because of wire length and process variation. Novel approaches such as the globally asynchronous, locally synchronous try to solve this issue by partitioning the SoC into isolated synchronous islands. This paper describes the bisynchronous FIFO used on the DSPIN network-on-chip capable to interface systems working with different clock signals (frequency and/or phase). Its interfaces are synchronous and its architecture is scalable and synthesizable in synchronous standard cells. The metastability situations and its latency are analyzed. Its throughput, maximum frequency, and area are evaluated in function of the FIFO depth.