Invention Grant
- Patent Title: Automatic asynchronous signal pipelining
- Patent Title (中): 自动异步信号流水线
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Application No.: US11437950Application Date: 2006-05-19
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Publication No.: US07676768B1Publication Date: 2010-03-09
- Inventor: Mark Bourgeault , Ryan Fung , David Lewis
- Applicant: Mark Bourgeault , Ryan Fung , David Lewis
- Applicant Address: US CA San Jose
- Assignee: Altera Corporation
- Current Assignee: Altera Corporation
- Current Assignee Address: US CA San Jose
- Agency: Weaver Austin Villeneuve & Sampson LLP
- Main IPC: G06F17/50
- IPC: G06F17/50

Abstract:
An electronic design automation (EDA) tool alters a user's netlist to provide timing success for distribution of asynchronous signals. Distribution networks are used with the addition of pipeline registers before and/or after the distribution buffer. Or, a tree of pipeline registers is inserted between the asynchronous source and the destination registers. Or, any number of distribution networks are stitched together and pipeline stages may be inserted before and/or after each distribution buffer. Or, beneficial skew is utilized by introducing a delay component that skews a clock signal. The skewed clock signal drives a pipeline register that is inserted before a distribution buffer in order to improve timing margin. Any of various compilation techniques may be used within the EDA tool to solve the problem of distributing high-speed, high-fanout asynchronous signals. The technique has utility for high-performance FPGAs and structured ASIC families, as well as for low-cost FPGAs and other types of logic devices.
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