On Self-Timed Circuits in Real-Time Systems

While asynchronous logic has many potential advantages compared to traditional synchronous designs, one of the major drawbacks is its unpredictability with respect to temporal behavior. Having no high-precision oscillator, a self-timed circuit's execution speed is heavily dependent on temperatu...

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Main Author: Markus Ferringer
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2011-01-01
Series:International Journal of Reconfigurable Computing
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2011/972375
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author Markus Ferringer
author_facet Markus Ferringer
author_sort Markus Ferringer
collection DOAJ
description While asynchronous logic has many potential advantages compared to traditional synchronous designs, one of the major drawbacks is its unpredictability with respect to temporal behavior. Having no high-precision oscillator, a self-timed circuit's execution speed is heavily dependent on temperature and supply voltage. Small fluctuations of these parameters already result in noticeable changes of the design's throughput and performance. Without further provisions this jitter makes the use of asynchronous logic hardly feasible for real-time applications. We investigate the temporal characteristics of self-timed circuits regarding their usage in real-time systems, especially the Time-Triggered Protocol. We propose a simple timing model and elaborate a self-adapting circuit which shall derive a suitable notion of time for both bit transmission and protocol execution. We further introduce and analyze our jitter compensation concept, which is a threefold mechanism to keep the asynchronous circuit's notion of time tightly synchronized to the remaining communication participants. To demonstrate the robustness of our solution, we perform different tests and investigate their impact on jitter and frequency stability.
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spelling doaj-art-1996e907bf3b4793be7a9fad0ab723292025-02-03T01:11:50ZengWileyInternational Journal of Reconfigurable Computing1687-71951687-72092011-01-01201110.1155/2011/972375972375On Self-Timed Circuits in Real-Time SystemsMarkus Ferringer0Department of Computer Engineering, Embedded Computing Systems Group, Vienna University of Technology, Treitlstraße 3, 1040 Vienna, AustriaWhile asynchronous logic has many potential advantages compared to traditional synchronous designs, one of the major drawbacks is its unpredictability with respect to temporal behavior. Having no high-precision oscillator, a self-timed circuit's execution speed is heavily dependent on temperature and supply voltage. Small fluctuations of these parameters already result in noticeable changes of the design's throughput and performance. Without further provisions this jitter makes the use of asynchronous logic hardly feasible for real-time applications. We investigate the temporal characteristics of self-timed circuits regarding their usage in real-time systems, especially the Time-Triggered Protocol. We propose a simple timing model and elaborate a self-adapting circuit which shall derive a suitable notion of time for both bit transmission and protocol execution. We further introduce and analyze our jitter compensation concept, which is a threefold mechanism to keep the asynchronous circuit's notion of time tightly synchronized to the remaining communication participants. To demonstrate the robustness of our solution, we perform different tests and investigate their impact on jitter and frequency stability.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2011/972375
spellingShingle Markus Ferringer
On Self-Timed Circuits in Real-Time Systems
International Journal of Reconfigurable Computing
title On Self-Timed Circuits in Real-Time Systems
title_full On Self-Timed Circuits in Real-Time Systems
title_fullStr On Self-Timed Circuits in Real-Time Systems
title_full_unstemmed On Self-Timed Circuits in Real-Time Systems
title_short On Self-Timed Circuits in Real-Time Systems
title_sort on self timed circuits in real time systems
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2011/972375
work_keys_str_mv AT markusferringer onselftimedcircuitsinrealtimesystems