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Clocks, Signals, and Delays

Digital circuits are invariably controlled by a clock and events take place at discrete points in time. This article looks at several topics related to the clock and the propagation of signals through a digital system. In principle, you shouldn’t have to worry about clock signals and delays. All you should have to do is to create a digital circuit that performs the appropriate digital function. In practice, signals are delayed as they pass through circuits and two signals may even arrive at a given point out of sync with each other, if they have taken different routes. Designing a circuit today is as much about satisfying timing constraints as it is about satisfying Boolean constraints.

Fortunately, most computer users don’t have to worry about clocks and timing. Such worries are the province of the electronic engineer and circuit designer. However, as a student of computer architecture it is necessary to appreciate the need for accurate timing.

We are going to look at the following topics:


The Clock

The clock is a circuit that provides a sequence of pulses to trigger each internal operation.  The digital clock in a computer is the same as the digital clock in your watch, albeit operating at a much higher rate.

A clock may operate at the basic instruction rate of a computer, or a multiple of the instruction rate because each instruction may itself be executed as a series of partial instructions or microinstructions.

Figure 1 illustrates the waveform from a perfect hypothetical clock. We assume that the pulses are perfectly uniform and equally spaced. Moreover, they have zero rise and fall times; that is, the transition from a 0 state to a 1 state and from a 1 state to a zero state is instantaneous. Finally, when the clock is in a zero state, the signal is constant and when the clock is in a 1 state it is similarly constant; that is, the waveform is perfectly square.







Figure 1 The Perfect idealized clock

If we assume that the up time and down time (high to low time) is constant and 1:1, the only parameter that describes a clock is its frequency; that is, the number of transitions per second. In the early days of the microprocessor, typical clocks ran at 1 MHz (1,000,000 transitions per second). Today, clock frequencies of 1 GHz, 1,000 million of 109 transitions/second are common.

Another parameter of a clock (in figure 1 tcyc) is its cycle time, of the duration of a clock cycle. This is the reciprocal of the frequency; that is, tcyc = 1/F. A 1 MHz clock has a cycle time of 1/106 = 1/1,000,000 = 1 ms. A 1 GHz clock has a cycle time of 1/109 = 1 ns. One nanosecond is such a short interval that light travels only one foot (30 cm) in 1 ns.

Often a clock has a perfectly symmetric waveform with equal up (logic 1) and down times (logic 0). However, not all clocks (or pulse sequences) have identical up and down times. Figure 2 illustrates such a waveform.









Figure 2 Pulse sequence with different up and down times

The ratio between the up and down times is called the mark:space ratio (the term comes from the pre-computer, pre-Boolean algebra days of telegraphy when the two states of a lines were called mark and space). A similar term, duty cycle, defines the ratio of the active (up) time to the entire cycle time. Consider a clock that is high for 1.5 ns and low for 3.0 ns. Its mark:space ratio is 1.5:3.0 or 1:2. Its duty cycle is 1.5/(1.5 + 3.0) = 1.5/4.5 = 0.333.

In practice, waveforms are never perfect. Figure 3 illustrates a waveform with sloping rising and falling edges. Signals never make instantaneous 0 to 1 and 1 to 0 transitions and an edge can be characterized by its rise time and fall time. Note that the rise/fall ime is usually measured between tow specific points; for example, 10% and 90% of the peak level.








Figure 3 Clock signal with rising and falling edges


We can introduce a further level of imperfection called jitter. The term jitter refers to random variations in the time at which an edge makes its transition. In a perfect world this would be 0. In everyday terms, if you aim to arrive at the office at 8.50 every morning but you arrive anywhere between 8.45 and 8.57, the random variation of -4 and +7 minutes is the jitter in the arrival time.

Figure 4 illustrates the concept of jitter. He trace shows a clock making a negative transition after its nominal transition point. Jitter is typically random and its distribution (jitter value plotter against probability) follows a Gaussian curve. The curve in figure 4 also illustrates the concept of the Gaussian variation in jitter.























Figure 4 Clock signals with jitter



Figure 5 illustrates a real-world clock signal. Depending on the speed of the circuit, the technology used in its  implementation and the actual circuit,  an idealized signal can suffer from many imperfections; for example:


Overshoot: the signal goes above the 1 level on a positive transition  

Undershoot: the signal goes below the 0 level on a negative transition

Ringing: the signal oscillates at the  beginning or end of a transition

Droop: the signal does not maintain a steady level between transitions.

Noise: Noise if the effect of extraneous random signals superimposed on the clock signals


All these effects are bad and can contribute to incorrect operation and random errors. In a marginal design, such errors may occur very infrequently and be difficult to debug.

























Figure 5 Real world clock signal




Propagation Delay


When a signal is applied to the input of a circuit, the output does not change until after a finite time, the propagation delay. Figure 6 illustrates the propagation delay through a simple invertor. Although we speak of propagation delay, the delay experienced by a 0 to 1 transition may not be the same as that experienced by a 1 to 0 transition.


























Figure 6 Propagation delay through an invertor



Figure 7 illustrates a logic circuit with four gates. This is a 2-input multiplexer with an inverting output. In this example we have assumed that the gates have different propagation delays and have idealized the circuits by assuming an input-to-output delay and perfect state transitions (no rise/fall times).  


When computing the worst-case delay or the circuit, you have to consider the longest path taken by a signal. In this case it is input C vial gate A, B and D. The total past is 2 + 4 + 5 = 11 ns.


Figure 7 Delay in a logic circuit


























The Glitch


The term glitch indicates a short-term incorrect state in a digital system due to propagation delays. Glitch has entered the English language to indicate a short-term snag, fault, or hold-up. The origin of glitch is not clear; it is said to come from the German word to slip (glitschen) or the Yiddish word to slide or skid (gletshn).


Figure 8 illustrates the concept of a glitch with a simple two-gate circuit. The inputs to the AND gate are X and X! which means that the output is 0 because the AND of a value with its complement is 0.


However, if you look at the timing diagram, you with see that there is a short term positive pulse, the glitch caused by the propagation delay through the invertor.
















Figure 8 The Glitch


Delays in circuits caused by propagation paths through logic elements or even the propagation delay incurred by interconnections can lead to incorrect or intermittent operation. Logic design techniques, the control of signal path lengths and synchronization circuits can all bee used to minimize the problems of signal delay.



Setup and Hold Times


Two very important timing parameters of clocked circuits with latches are setup and hold times. Consider the D flip-flop. When it is clocked, the signal at the D input is captured and transferred to the Q output. Simple. In reality, we have to consider the meaning of the “when” in the expression “when it is clocked”.  In everyday terms, you can’t arrive at the station at 9.00am to catch a 9.00am train. You need some time to find the platform, go through the ticket barrier, and get to the train. If we say that when the guard blows a whistle to signal the departure (i.e., the clock) we have to arrive at the station a minimum time (the setup time) before the whistle blows.


The same criterion must be applied to the flip-flop. An input signal must be present and stable for a minimum time before it is clocked. This is the setup time and is illustrated in figure  9. If an input does not comply with the minimum setup time, incorrect operation in possible. Soon we shall discuss metastabilty, which is one of the possible effects of failing to comply with setup time.




























Figure 9 Set  up and hold time


As well as setup time, an input must also comply with a hold time. Again, consider the everyday case. In the good old days (i.e., prior to PowerPoint) I could draw a figure on the blackboard and the students were able to write it down (well, at least the students where were (a) awake and (b) actually cared about what I was doing). With the advent of PowerPoint, I get a chorus of “Wait, I haven’t finished yet” every time I move on to the next slide. Providing information is not enough, you have to provide sufficient time for that information to be captured. This is, of course, the hold time. When an input is clocked, the input must be stable of a minimum hold time before which it can begin to change, figure 9.


Consequently, the minimum time for which any signal must be valid is the sum of its setup and hold times.


Tri-state Delays


A tri-state or three state circuit has an output that can be in one of three states: high, low, and high-Z (high impedance or unconnected). Essentially, a tri-state output is a device that can drive its output in one of the two binary states, or it can be physically disconnected from the circuit. The binary 0 or 1 state is called the active or enabled state, and the disconnected state is called the disabled state.


The purpose of a tristate gate is to allow multiple logic devices to drive the same bus. Processors, memory devices, bus drivers etc, frequently have tri-state outputs. Any device that wants to put its data on the bus enables its outputs and then drives the bus line or lines to the appropriate binary state or states.


The most significant aspect of tristate design is that you must never, ever have two tristate outputs attempting to drive the same bus at the same time.  For example in a memory array, only one chip at a time can drive the common bus.


Figure 10 illustrate the timing of a tristate driver. We assume that this driver is enabled by an active-high signal. Initially, the output is disabled and the  bus is floating (shown by the line between high and low states). When the output is enabled, the bus is driven into a 0 or 1 state (shown by the parallel lines that are shaded yellow). Driving the bus takes time tON.


When the enable signal returns inactive-low, the tristate output stops driving the bus after a delay tOFF. At this point the bus is free to be driven by any other tristate driver.




















Figure 10 Tri-state turn on and turn off times


If is easy to control tristate drivers; for example, a 3-line-to-8-line decoder can decode a 3-bit code into one of 8 tristate enable signals. Because one control output is active at any instant, therefore only one tristate  device can be enabled. End of problem.


However, life is not that simple. It takes time to turn off a tristate driver and it takes time to turn on a tristate driver.  Consider figure 11 where two tristate drivers are connected to the same bus.



















Figure 11 Driving a bus

In this example, device A is initially driving the bus. When its control signal goes inactive high (notice that the active state in this example is low which is traditional) A stops driving the buss after tA_off. Device B then begins to drive the bus tB_ON after the assertion of its control signal.

In figure 11 there is a gap between the point at which the bus is turned off by A and the point at which the bus is turned on by B. For proper circuit operation this gap must always be  positive. However,, if it is negative and A turns off after B turns on, glitches are possible and the tristate outputs could even be damaged physically by allowing high currents to flow through two gates in series.

Clearly, it is necessary that tA_B + tB_ON > tA_OFF