STTR PHASE I: Blended Clocked and Clockless Integrated Circuit Systems

Blendics, Inc., Saint Louis MO

Investigators

Abstract

This Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I research project will demonstrate a globally asynchronous, locally synchronous (GALS) methodology for the design of large-scale, deep-submicron, System-on-Chip (SoC) integrated circuits fabricated in Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). The methodology utilizes a Delay-Insensitive (DI) interconnect between conventionally clocked subsystems. The interconnect components are bundled data paths and a set of control elements whose designs are DI and hazard-free across processes and submicron scaling. These control elements are defined by Petri net models or their trace theory equivalents. Prototype software has been developed to synthesize, from their defining models, the required logic for these elements. Hazards are identified, logic hazards eliminated and metastability hazards managed. The methodology, in contrast to other approaches, allows the synthesis of a variety of arbiters from their models and includes novel stability detectors that can be implemented in FPGAs. The proposed work will improve the reliability, breadth and ease-of-use of the synthesis software and demonstrate a significant multiprocessor FPGA architecture. The proposed integrated circuit design methodology can substantially decrease the difficulty of designing billion-transistor, integrated-circuits for the SoCs of the future. The proposed GALS methodology will be introduced in the increasingly popular FPGA sector where other clockless designs have failed to leave the research laboratories. The proposed methodology has the potential to markedly decrease design cost and time-to-market of the large, specialized systems of the future.