AMPS: An Automated Mesochronous Pipeline Scheduler and Design Space Explorer for High Performance Digital Circuits

Abstract

In the Mesochronous Pipeline (MP), the clock period is the maximal of differences between the maximum/minimum delays of all stages. This value is less than the maximum delay between the memory elements, so MP is operating faster than the conventional pipeline (CP). To take full advantages of MP, in this paper, Automated Mesochronous Pipeline Scheduler (AMPS) for high performance digital circuits, is proposed which provides all allowed partitioning options generated by register allocation procedures obtained with varying maximum delay differences of stages. This allows a designer to select from design space produced by AMPS based on the desired specification. Unlike the traditional MP, AMPS utilizes automated scripts to extract the timing characteristics of the synchronizers and gates. This enables a designer to explore trade-offs between latency, power, and frequency. To evaluate our toolset, an 8-bit Carry Increment Adder (CIA), a 4-bit Binary-Coded Decimal (BCD) adder, a 4-bit ALU, and a set of circuits from ISCAS85 and ISCAS89 benchmarks are considered. All circuit level simulations are performed in the 65nm CMOS standard technology node. AMPS improves the frequency for its best solutions about 127.94% (on average) in comparison to the conventional pipeline scheme.