Automatic clock de-skewing apparatus

Abstract

Apparatus for providing automatic clock de-skewing for a plurality of circuit boards of a data processing system. In a preferred embodiment, each circuit board is of multi-layer construction and contains a clock distribution chip which includes on-chip automatic clock de-skewing circuitry for providing de-skewed clocks to other chips on the circuit board. In a preferred implementation of the clock de-skewing circuitry, feedback circuitry including a multi-tapped delay line and an accurate reference delay are employed in conjunction with a phase comparator for automatically providing de-skewed clocks at the clock outputs of the clock distribution chip. The accurate reference delay is advantageously provided by a strip transmission line formed in a conductive layer of the multi-layer board containing the chips.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.