A high performance dual clock elastic FIFO network interface for GALS NoC. (June 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Adl, Seyed Mohamad Taghi; Mohammadi, Siamak
• Is Part Of: Microelectronics journal. Volume 76(2018)
• Page Start: 69
• Page End: 80
• Publication Date: 2018-06
• Subjects: Dual clock FIFO -- GALS NoC interface -- Performance evaluation -- Process variation; Microelectronics -- Periodicals; Microélectronique -- Périodiques; Microelectronics; Electronic journals; Journals - contents and abstracts; Periodicals; 621.3805
• DOI: 10.1016/j.mejo.2018.04.014
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0959-8324

Abstract

Abstract: A dual clock register based elastic First-In First-Out Architecture is presented for Globally Asynchronous Locally Synchronous (GALS) Network on Chip interface. The FIFO is designed using synchronous elastic methods, facilitating its synthesis with commercial CAD tools. This FIFO supports arbitrary phase and frequency for read and write operations and prepares safe data transmission between different clock domains. The presented structure can be easily used as an interface between synchronous or asynchronous GALS modules. The FIFO is simulated and analyzed with 32 nm PTM library in HSPICE. Metastability, process variation, throughput, power, area, delay and maximum frequency are analyzed. Results show elastic FIFO power delay product (PDP) is 23% less than similar synchronous FIFOs. Our proposed elastic FIFO has double capacity while the area is almost the same. The elastic FIFO tolerates better high variability and can preserve its functionality by 5% in average more than the DSPIN synchronous FIFO in presence of variation. Highlights: Dual clock elastic FIFO in GALS NoCs which can be interfaced to asynchronous or synchronous modules easily. The elastic FIFO can store double data in the almost same area compared to synchronous FIFOs. Issues such as metastability, throughput, process variation, power, area, delay have been thoroughly analyzed. This elastic FIFO exhibits 23% less PDP compared to its synchronous counterpart. The elastic FIFO preserves its functionality up to 10% more than DSPIN FIFO in presence of process variation.