MOUSETRAP: High-Speed Transition-Signaling Asynchronous Pipelines

Abstract

An asynchronous pipeline style is introduced for high-speed applications, called MOUSETRAP. The pipeline uses standard transparent latches and static logic in its datapath, and small latch controllers consisting of only a single gate per pipeline stage. This simple structure is combined with an efficient and highly-concurrent event-driven protocol between adjacent stages. Post-layout SPICE simulations of a ten-stage pipeline with a 4-bit wide datapath indicate throughputs of 2.1-2.4 GHz in a 0.18-mum TSMC CMOS process. Similar results were obtained when the datapath width was extended to 16 bits. This performance is competitive even with that of wave pipelines, without the accompanying problems of complex timing and much design effort. Additionally, the new pipeline gracefully and robustly adapts to variable speed environments. The pipeline stages are extended to fork and join structures, to handle more complex system architectures.