Clock gating with an asynchronous wrapper cell
AssigneeUniversity of Utah Research Foundation
InventorsKenneth S. Stevens, Dipanjan Bhadra
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Technology is described for an asynchronous wrapper circuit for a clock gating cell (CGC). In one example, the asynchronous wrapper cell for CGC includes circuitry configured to (1) sample a data channel via sampling circuitry for a communication start signal to enable the CGC to start a gated clock for a data message on the data channel, and (2) reset an enable of the CGC to an idle mode via idle mode control circuitry after the data message has been clocked via the CGC through function cell circuitry. The idle mode control circuitry generates an output for the sampling circuitry from the function cell. Various other computing circuitries are also disclosed.
Claims19
A reactive clock gating cell, comprising:
- a clock gating cell (CGC) to generate a gated clock from an enabled clock, wherein the gated clock provides a clock for a function cell;
- a sampling circuit to sample a data channel for a communication start signal that enables the CGC to start the gated clock for a data message on the data channel;
- and
- an idle mode control circuit coupled to the function cell and the sampling circuit, the idle mode control circuit being configured to reset an enable of the CGC to an idle mode after the data message has been clocked through the function cell.
An asynchronous wrapper circuit for a clock gating cell (CGC), having circuitry configured to:
- sample a data channel via sampling circuitry for a communication start signal to enable the CGC to start a gated clock for a data message on the data channel;
- and
- reset an enable of the CGC to an idle mode via idle mode control circuitry after the data message has been clocked via the CGC through function cell circuitry, the idle mode control circuitry generating an output for the sampling circuitry from the function cell circuitry.
A method of generating asynchronous control for a clock gating cell (CGC), comprising:
- transmitting a data message via data channel to a function cell clocked by a gated clock generated from the CGC;
- triggering a communication start signal from a beginning of the data message to enable the CGC to start the gated clock for the data message on the data channel;
- and
- triggering a CGC reset signal from an output of the function cell to stop the gated clock from the CGC after the data message has been clocked through the function cell.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.