Dummy load controlled multilevel logic single clock logic circuit

A multi-level logic circuit includes a first plurality of logic circuits that are connected in a cascade arrangement. A second plurality of dummy logic circuits also connected in casacade arrangement are used to generate logic pulses for evaluating the first plurality of logic circuits. A clock source provides a precharged signal to the first plurality of logic circuits and the second plurality of dummy logic circuits and an evaluation circuit is used to combine the clock signal with an output signal from the dummy logic signal to obtain an evaluation signal for evaluating the logic states of the first plurality of logic circuits.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION 
This invention relates to multi-level logic circuits and in particular, 
those multi-logic level circuits that operate with a single clock pulse. 
Dynamic multi-level logic circuits that are manufactured by the metal oxide 
silicon process require a multiphase clock to insure the proper 
implementation of the desired logic function. The implementing of a 
priority multilevel logic function requires the partitioning of the logic 
into time slots and then assigning the required number of clock phases to 
cover the worse case or maximum number of logic levels that are to be 
implemented. The phases of the clock are generated by dividing a clock 
signal from a basic signal source down. This results in multiple phases of 
clock signals, typically all phases being related to a basic source 
frequency that is divided down by one, two, four, etc., which means that 
all the phases of the clock are multiples of the basic source frequency. 
In this scheme, the frequency of operation is increased until one phase, 
which is normally only one, becomes critical. When this happens, many of 
the logic levels are left with redundant time available to complete the 
decision operation. 
Although MOS circuits are considered economical to manufacture, because of 
the necessity of requiring separate clock phases for precharging and 
evaluation of the logic levels, these circuits are normally not utilized 
in many high speed circuits. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
A multilevel logic circuit includes a first plurality of logic circuits 
that are connected in a cascade arrangement. A second plurality of dummy 
logic circuits also connected in cascade arrangement is used to generate 
logic pulses for evaluating the first plurality of logic circuits. A clock 
source provides a precharge signal to the first plurality of logic 
circuits and the second plurality of dummy logic circuits and an 
evaluation circuit is used to combine the clock signal with an output 
signal from the dummy logic circuits to obtain an evaluation signal for 
evaluating the logic states of the first plurality of logic circuits. 
A multilevel logic circuit is disclosed in which the evaluation pulse is 
provided to correspond with the availability of data to be evaluated at 
each level. 
The evaluation circuit is combined with a multilevel logic circuit to 
obtain a high speed programmable logic array. 
These embodiments, as well as advantages and objects of the invention, may 
be ascertained from reading of the specification in combination with the 
figures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
In FIG. 1, to which reference shall now be made, there is shown a block 
diagram of a dummy load controlled multilevel logic system 10 and single 
clock. A clock source 1 provides a clock signal to the dummy load 
controlled multilevel logic system 10, as well as to an inverter 3, which 
produces an inverted clock signal, CLOCK, that is applied to the dummy 
load controlled multilevel logic system 10 via conductor 5. A data source 
7 such as a memory, register or other device, provides parallel data 
signals, DATA 1 through DATA N, via data bus 9 to the dummy load control 
multilevel logic system 10. The dummy load control multilevel logic system 
10 includes M times N logic elements 13. The logic elements 13 are divided 
into words having a width of N logic elements that are connected together 
in cascade arrangement to form an N by M matrix, which corresponds to a 
multi-level logic system of M level, having a width of N bits. 
Additionally, there are M dummy load circuits 15 that are also connected 
in cascade arrangement. Each logic element 13 and each dummy element 15 is 
precharged by the clock signal activating the gate of transistors 17 
causing VCC, provided from a source not shown, to be applied to the 
corresponding logic element 13 and dummy logic elements 15. The 1,1 logic 
element 19, 1, (N-1) logic element 21 and 1, N logic element 25, are 
evaluated by the CLOCK signal activating transistors 27 which connects the 
corresponding logic elements to reference potential at arrows 31. A 1,1 
dummy element 29 is also evaluated by the clock signal and because the 1,1 
dummy element 29 is connected to be representative of the worst case 
condition for any of the logic elements 13 that are connected in the first 
row an evaluation pulse is provided by an inverting amplifier 33 to the 
logic elements 13 that are located in the second row. The logic elements 
13 in the second row are connected in cascade arrangement with the logic 
elements in the first row and are thus able to be evaluated as soon as an 
evaluation signal is provided to the gates of the transistors 32, which 
are connected with transistors 27 to form AND gates for ANDing the output 
of the inverter 33 with the clock signal that is provided from the 
inverter 3. It should be noted that the data from the data source 7 is 
connected to the corresponding input terminals of the logic elements in 
the first row and the outputs of the logic elements in the first row that 
are present on the Q terminals are connected to corresponding logic 
elements on the second row at the input terminals, thus, creating the 
cascade connection. This configuration is carried on completely through 
all M rows. The dummy elements 15 of each row are similarly connected in a 
cascade arrangement, with each representing the worst possible condition 
as far as propogation delays of the signal to insure that when an 
evaluation pulse is provided on the outputs of the inverters 33 that the 
corresponding logic has completed all logical operations. The evaluation 
of the dummy load control multi-level logic system 10 only requires (M-1) 
dummy logic systems; however, if the data that is provided on the outputs 
of the logic elements 13 are members of the M row and is to be stored in a 
memory location, then a store pulse may be provided on the final output 
inverter 33 of the M dummy logic 39. 
FIG. 2, to which reference should now be made, there is shown a simplified 
schematic diagram of a dummy load circuit 15 and a logic element 13. The 
dummy load 15 is connected in the worst case condition so as to insure 
that when an evaluation pulse is provided at the output of inverting 
amplifier 33 that the appropriate logic element 13 is ready for 
evaluation. As an example the logic element 13 includes 3 parallel rows of 
transistors arranged such that the first row has a single transistor 14, 
the second row has a series combination of transistors 16 and 18 
respectively, and the third row has a series combination of three 
transistors 20, 22 and 24. The worst case condition for the logic element 
13 based upon the data that is provided by the data bus 9 is for 
transistors 14, 16 and 18 to be in the off condition and transistors 20, 
22 and 24 to be in the on condition. Consequently, the dummy load element 
15 has a transistor 2 which is in parallel with a series combination of 
transistors 4 and 6 which is also in parallel arrangements with a series 
combination of three transistors 8, 10 and 12. The three transistors 8, 10 
and 12 are on and the transistors 2, 4 and 6 are in the off state. 
Therefore, when the evaluation clock that is provided on the output of 
inverting amplifier 33 is applied to the next stage to be provided the 
data that is provided on the output of, the logic element 13, the data is 
valid data and can be utilized by the next row of logic elements. 
A timing diagram of the operation of the logic circuit of FIG. 1 is 
provided in FIG. 3, to which reference should now be made. The clock 
pulses that is provided by the clock source 1 in the preferred embodiment 
has a time window of 100 nanoseconds as indicated by the arrow 41 of FIG. 
3. There is illustrated two precharge clock pulses 43 which of course 
represent the output of the clock source 1. The inverted clock is the 
output of the inverter 3 and is true during the period of time between 
vertical lines 45 and 51. There are essentially three phases to the 
operation of the dummy load control multilevel logic system 10 of FIG. 1. 
These include the precharged phase as indicated as period of time between 
vertical lines 49 and 45, the evaluation period of time as indicated by 
the period of time between vertical lines 45 and 47 and the store period 
of time, as indicated as a time period between the lines 47 and 51. When 
the precharge clock as indicated by pulse 43 is true, then the transistors 
17 connect logic elements 13 and dummy elements 15 to VCC, precharging the 
lines thereby. At vertical line 45, the precharge clock pulse 43 is 
removed and the evaluate clock is provided at vertical line 45 by the 
output of the inverter 3 going positive. At this time, the transistors 27 
connect the outputs of the logic elements 13 and dummy elements 15 that 
are members of the first row to the reference potential such as ground and 
these circuits are evaluated and the results of the evaluation are placed 
on the Q output terminals, each of which of course is connected to a 
corresponding element input terminal on the second row. The evaluation of 
the first row is indicated by the period of time between lines 45 and 51. 
Inverter 33 provides an evaluation pulse that begins at vertical line 53 
and the second row of logic elements 13 as well as the dummy element 15 
are evaluated during this period of time. The 2,1 dummy element 15 
provides a worst case pulse on the output of inverter 57 at vertical line 
59 which indicates that the next row, which in the case of FIG. 1, is Row 
3, is ready for evaluation at vertical line 61. This process continues and 
the dummy element 15 that is a member of the Mth row, which in the case of 
FIGS. 1 and 3 is the 4th row, will provide an enable pulse on the output 
of inverter 63 at vertical line 65, indicating that the final row is ready 
to be evaluated. In the case of the embodiment of FIG. 1, where the 
results of the dummy load control multilevel logic system 10 evaluation 
are to be stored in a memory, a store pulse is provided by the M dummy 
logic 39 via an inverter 67. This indicates that at line 47, all data may 
be stored by a store pluse, which is a period of time that occurs between 
vertical lines 47 and lines 51. At line 51, the precharge pulse 43 appears 
and causes the evaluation clock 71 to be removed by the inverter 3 and 
thus all evaluation signals that occur between vertical lines 45 and 47 
are removed and all circuits are precharged by the precharge pulse 43 and 
repeating of the process that was previously discussed and represented in 
FIG. 3 begins again. 
In FIG. 4, to which reference should now be made, there is shown a 
schematic diagram of a programmable logic array 100 whose outputs are 
connected to a memory 2. The programmable logic array 100 includes two 
stages. A first decode stage 72 in which the data that is present on data 
bus 9 decodes information according to the placement of transistors 73 
between the x-coordinates that is represented by the data IN lines and the 
y-coordinates, represented by vertical lines, 76, 77, and 79. When the 
data is decoded, it is applied to a second stage 81, which is the output 
stage and is used to drive the load which in the case of FIG. 4, is a 
memory. The programming of the output stage is represented by transistors 
83, which provide connections between the vertical lines 76 and 77, and 
the horizontal lines 85 and 87 85' and 87'. The dummy load circuit 15 is 
connected in the worst case condition by having a single transistor 37 
connected between the x-axis and the y-axis of the programmable logic 
array 100. It is obvious that the greater the number of conducting 
transistors, the quicker the lines that are connected to the transistors 
27 will be discharged. Consequently, a single on transistor, and all off 
transistors for all data lines except one is the worst case arrangement. 
Thus a transistor 8 is biased on and transistors 2, 4 and 6 are biased off 
in the embodiment of FIG. 4. The enable signal is ANDed with the clock 
signal by the configuration of the transistors 8 and 27 that is contained 
within the dummy logic 15. This causes a pulse to be provided on the 
output of the inverter 33, thus enabling the transistors 137 so that the 
second stage 81 of the programmable logic array may be evaluated, provided 
that the clock signal is removed from the transistors 17. The output is 
applied to the memory 2 where if the second dummy circuit 101 is 
evaluated, then the inverter 133, provides a store pulse to the memory 2, 
and the output of the programmable logic array may be stored in memory 2. 
Although the present invention has been described in relation to a specific 
preferred environment, it will be clearly understood by those skilled in 
the art that other optional features may be included within the dummy load 
multilevel logic system 10 or subsituted for features described without 
departing from the scope of the invention.