Apparatus and method for signal skew characterization utilizing clock division

An apparatus for measuring a signal skew between two on-chip signals, comprising:

• first means for identifying a transmission of a first signal;
• second means for identifying a transmission of a second signal;
• third means for generating a pulse train based on the identification of the transmission of the first signal and the transmission of the second signal, wherein the pulse train represents a signal skew between the first signal and the second signal;
• and
• a clock divider means that receives the pulse train as an input and generates a clock divided pulse train as an output, wherein the clock divided pulse train has a pulse width equal to a function of the skew between the first signal and the second signal.

An apparatus for determining a memory access time for an on-chip memory element, comprising:

• a first comparator for identifying a clocking of the memory element;
• a second comparator for identifying an output from the memory element;
• and
• a flip-flop for generating a pulse train based on a setting and resetting of the flip-flop in response to receiving a set input from the second comparator and a reset input from the first comparator, wherein the memory access time is a function of a pulse width and cycle time of the pulse train.

A method for measuring a signal skew between two on-chip signals, comprising:

• identifying a transmission of a first signal;
• identifying a transmission of a second signal;
• and
• generating a pulse train based on the identification of the transmission of the first signal and the transmission of the second signal, wherein the pulse train represents a signal skew between the first signal and the second signal, wherein identifying a transmission of the first signal includes comparing a clock signal with a reference voltage and generating a first output signal based on the comparison of the clock signal with the reference voltage, identifying the transmission of the second signal includes comparing a reference output signal and an output signal from a circuit component and generating a second output signal based on the comparison of the reference output signal with the output signal from the circuit component, and wherein the pulse train is generated based on the first output signal and the second output signal.

A method for measuring a signal skew between two on-chip signals, comprising:

• identifying a transmission of a first signal;
• identifying a transmission of a second signal;
• generating a pulse train based on the identification of the transmission of the first signal and the transmission of the second signal, wherein the pulse train represents a signal skew between the first signal and the second signal;
• and
• generating a clock divided pulse train as an output based on the pulse train, wherein the clock divided pulse train has a pulse width equal to a function of the skew between the first signal and the second signal.