1. Spring 08, Mar 11 ELEC 7770: Advanced VLSI Design (Agrawal) 1 ELEC 7770 Advanced VLSI Design Spring 2008 Zero - Skew Clock Routing Vishwani D. Agrawal James J. Danaher Professor ECE Department, Auburn University Auburn, AL 36849 vagrawal@eng.auburn.edu http://www.eng.auburn.edu/~vagrawal/COURSE/E7770_Spr08/course.html

2. Spring 08, Mar 11ELEC 7770: Advanced VLSI Design (Agrawal)2 Zero-Skew Clock Routing FF CK

3. Spring 08, Mar 11ELEC 7770: Advanced VLSI Design (Agrawal)3 Zero-Skew: References  H-Tree  A. L. Fisher and H. T. Kung, “Synchronizing Large Systolic Arrays,” Proc. SPIE, vol. 341, pp. 44-52, May 1982.  A. Kahng, J. Cong and G. Robins, “Hig-Performance Clock Routing Based on Recursive Geomrtric Matching,” Proc. Design Automation Conf., June 1991, pp. 322-327.  M. A. B. Jackson, A. Srinivasan and E. S. Kuh, “Clock Routing for High-Performance IC’s,” Proc. Design Automation Conf., June 1990, pp. 573-579.

4. Spring 08, Mar 11ELEC 7770: Advanced VLSI Design (Agrawal)4 Zero-Skew Routing  Build clock tree bottom up:  Leaf nodes are all equal loading flip-flops.  Two zero-skew subtrees are joined to form a larger zero-skew subtree.  Entire clock tree is built recursively.  R.-S. Tsay, “An Exact Zero-Skew Clock Routing Algorithm,” IEEE Trans. CAD, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 242- 249, Feb. 1993.  J. Rubenstein, P. Penfield and M. A. Horowitz, “Signal Delay in RC Tree Networks,” IEEE Trans. CAD, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 202-211, July 1983.

5. Spring 08, Mar 11ELEC 7770: Advanced VLSI Design (Agrawal)5 Balancing Subtrees (1) t1 C1 c1/2 t2 C2 c2/2 r1 r2 (1 – x)L xL Tapping point Subtree 1 Subtree 2 A B

6. Spring 08, Mar 11ELEC 7770: Advanced VLSI Design (Agrawal)6 Balancing Subtrees (2)  Subtrees 1 and 2 are each balanced (zero- skew) trees, with delays t1 and t2 to respective leaf nodes.  Total capacitances of subtrees are C1 and C2, respectively.  Connect points A and B by a minimum-length wire of length L.  Determine a tapping point x such that wire lengths xL and (1 – x)L produce zero skew.

7. Spring 08, Mar 11ELEC 7770: Advanced VLSI Design (Agrawal)7 Balancing Subtrees (3)  Use Elmore delay formula: r1(C1 + c1/2) + t1 = r2(C2 + c2/2) + t2  Substitute:  r1 = axL, r2 = a(1 – x)L  c1 = bxL, c2 = b(1 –x)L abL 2 x + aL(C1+C2)x = (t2 – t1) + aL(C2+bL/2)  Then solve for x: (t2 – t1) + aL (C2 + bL/2) x =──────────────── aL(bL + C1 + C2) aL(bL + C1 + C2)

8. Spring 08, Mar 11ELEC 7770: Advanced VLSI Design (Agrawal)8 Balancing Subtrees Example 1  Subtree parameters:  Subtree 1: t1 = 5ps, C1 = 3pF  Subtree 2: t2 = 10ps, C2 = 6pF  Interconnect:  L = 1mm  Wire parameters: a = 100Ω/cm, b = 1pF/cm  Tapping point: (t2 – t1) + aL (C2 + bL/2)(10–5) + 100×0.1(6 + 1×0.1/2) x =──────────────── = ────────────────── aL (bL + C1 + C2) 100×0.1(1×0.1+3+6) aL (bL + C1 + C2) 100×0.1(1×0.1+3+6) = (5 + 60.5)/(10×9.1) = 0.7198 = (5 + 60.5)/(10×9.1) = 0.7198

9. Spring 08, Mar 11ELEC 7770: Advanced VLSI Design (Agrawal)9 Example 1 FF To next level Subtree 1 Subtree 2 0.7198mm 0.2802mm t1 = 5ps, C1 = 3pF t2 = 10ps, C2 = 6pF

10. Spring 08, Mar 11ELEC 7770: Advanced VLSI Design (Agrawal)10 Balancing Subtrees, x > 1  Tapping point set at root of tree with larger loading (C2, t2).  Wire to the root of other tree is elongated to provide additional delay. Wire length L found as follows:  Set x = 1 in abL 2 x + aL(C1+C2)x = (t2 – t1) + aL(C2+bL/2) i.e., L 2 + (2C1/b)L – 2(t2 – t1)/(ab) = 0  Wire length is given by: [(aC1) 2 +2ab(t2 – t1)] ½ – aC1 L= ────────────────── a b  R.-S. Tsay, “An Exact Zero-Skew Clock Routing Algorithm,” IEEE Trans. CAD, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 242-249, Feb. 1993.

11. Spring 08, Mar 11ELEC 7770: Advanced VLSI Design (Agrawal)11 Balancing Subtrees Example 2  Subtree parameters:  Subtree 1: t1 = 2ps, C1 = 1pF  Subtree 2: t2 = 15ps, C2 = 10pF  Interconnect:  L = 1mm  Wire parameters: a = 100Ω/cm, b = 1pF/cm  Tapping point: (t2 – t1) + aL (C2 + bL/2)(15–2) + 100×0.1(10 + 1×0.1/2) x =──────────────── = ────────────────── aL (bL + C1 + C2) 100×0.1(1×0.1+1+10) aL (bL + C1 + C2) 100×0.1(1×0.1+1+10) = (13 + 100.5)/(10×11.1) = 1.0225 = (13 + 100.5)/(10×11.1) = 1.0225

12. Spring 08, Mar 11ELEC 7770: Advanced VLSI Design (Agrawal)12 Example 2, x = 1.0225 Setting x = 1.0, [(aC1) 2 +2ab(t2 – t1)]½ – aC1 [(aC1) 2 +2ab(t2 – t1)]½ – aC1 L= ────────────────── a b a b [(100×1) 2 +2100×1(15 – 2)]½ – 100×1 [(100×1) 2 +2100×1(15 – 2)]½ – 100×1 = ─────────────────────── 100×1 100×1 =0.1225cm

13. Spring 08, Mar 11ELEC 7770: Advanced VLSI Design (Agrawal)13 Example 2, L = 1.255mm FF To next level Subtree 1 Subtree 2 L = 1.225mm t1 = 2ps, C1 = 1pF t2 = 15ps, C2 = 10pF

14. Spring 08, Mar 11ELEC 7770: Advanced VLSI Design (Agrawal)14 Balancing Subtrees, x < 1  Tapping point set at root of tree with smaller loading (C1, t1).  Wire to the root of other tree is elongated to provide additional delay. Wire length L found as follows:  Set x = 0 in abL 2 x + aL(C1+C2)x = (t2 – t1) + aL(C2+bL/2) i.e., L 2 + (2C2/b)L – 2(t1 – t2)/(ab) = 0  Wire length is given by: [(aC2) 2 +2ab(t1 – t2)] ½ – aC2 L= ────────────────── a b a b  R.-S. Tsay, “An Exact Zero-Skew Clock Routing Algorithm,” IEEE Trans. CAD, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 242-249, Feb. 1993.

15. Spring 08, Mar 11ELEC 7770: Advanced VLSI Design (Agrawal)15 Balancing Subtrees Example 3  Subtree parameters:  Subtree 1: t1 = 15ps, C1 = 10pF  Subtree 2: t2 = 2ps, C2 = 1pF  Interconnect:  L = 1mm  Wire parameters: a = 100Ω/cm, b = 1pF/cm  Tapping point: (t2 – t1) + aL (C2 + bL/2)(2–15) + 100×0.1(1 + 1×0.1/2) x =──────────────── = ────────────────── aL (bL + C1 + C2) 100×0.1(1×0.1+1+10) aL (bL + C1 + C2) 100×0.1(1×0.1+1+10) = ( – 13 + 10.5)/(10×11.1) = – 0.0225 = ( – 13 + 10.5)/(10×11.1) = – 0.0225

16. Spring 08, Mar 11ELEC 7770: Advanced VLSI Design (Agrawal)16 Example 3, x = – 0.0225 Setting x = 0.0, [(aC2) 2 +2ab(t1 – t2)]½ – aC2 [(aC2) 2 +2ab(t1 – t2)]½ – aC2 L= ────────────────── a b a b [(100×1) 2 +2100×1(15 – 2)]½ – 100×1 [(100×1) 2 +2100×1(15 – 2)]½ – 100×1 = ─────────────────────── 100×1 100×1 =0.1225cm

17. Spring 08, Mar 11ELEC 7770: Advanced VLSI Design (Agrawal)17 Example 3, L = 1.255mm FF To next level Subtree 1 L = 1.225mm FF Subtree 2 t1 = 15ps, C1 = 10pF t2 = 2ps, C2 = 1pF

18. Spring 08, Mar 11ELEC 7770: Advanced VLSI Design (Agrawal)18 Zero-Skew Design FF AFF B Comb. CK Single-cycle path delay time Tck = 75ns FF C Comb. Delay =75ns Delay = 50ns

19. Spring 08, Mar 11ELEC 7770: Advanced VLSI Design (Agrawal)19 Nonzero-Skew Design FF AFF B Comb. CK Single-cycle path delay time Tck = 50ns FF C Comb. Delay =75ns Delay = 50ns Delay = 25ns

20. Spring 08, Mar 11ELEC 7770: Advanced VLSI Design (Agrawal)20 Conclusion  Zero-skew design is possible at the layout level.  Zero-skew usually results in higher clock speed.  Nonzero clock skews can improve the design with reduced hardware and/or higher speed.