Pipelined parallel processing of feedback loops in a digital circuit

Abstract

Digital circuits and methods for designing digital circuits are presented. In an embodiment, a number of bits (B) of a bit-stream to be processed in parallel by a digital circuit is selected. A clocking rate (C) is selected for the digital circuit such that a product (P), P being equal to B times C, is equal to at least 1 gigabit per second. An initial circuit capable of serially processing the bits of the bit-stream at a data processing rate less than P is formed. This initial circuit includes a feedback loop having N+1 delays. N is a whole number greater than zero. The initial circuit is unfolded by a factor of B to form B parallel processing pipelines for the bits of the bit-stream. An N-step look-ahead network is formed to provide inputs to the B parallel processing pipelines. The unfolded circuit is retimed to achieve the selected clocking rate (C).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.