Clock-gating and its application to low power design of sequential circuits

Abstract

This paper models the clock behavior in a sequential circuit by a quaternary variable and uses this representation to propose and analyze two clock-gating techniques. It then uses the covering relationship between the triggering transition of the clock and the active cycles of various flip flops to generate a derived clock for each flip flop in the circuit. A technique for clock gating is also presented, which generates a derived clock synchronous with the master clock. Design examples using gated clocks are provided next. Experimental results show that these designs have ideal logic functionality with lower power dissipation compared to traditional designs.