Abstract:
Methods and apparatus implementing techniques for prevention of metastability in a bistable circuit. The techniques include detecting a change in a data signal, sampling the detected change in reference to a sampling window of a clock signal input of a bistable circuit to determine if the detected change occurs within the sampling window, and selecting a stable data input to present to an input of the bistable circuit based on whether the detected change occurs within the sampling window. The sampling window represents a time period during which a change in the data signal can cause metastability in a bistable circuit.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD  
         [0001]    This invention relates to a circuit and method for preventing metastability in bistable digital circuits.  
         BACKGROUND  
         [0002]    A bistable digital circuit, such as a flip flop, stores data by using two stable equilibrium states to represent 1 and 0. All bistable circuits have a metastable equilibrium state in between the two stable states. This metastable state is encountered during the transition from one stable state to the other stable state. FIG. 1 is a graphical representation of the transition from one stable state to another stable state through a metastable state. Although it is theoretically possible for a circuit to stay in this metastable state indefinitely, in practice, the duration of the metastable state is short. The existence of this metastable equilibrium state means the conceptually binary flip flop may actually be in a third undefined state for an indefinite amount of time. This ambiguity can lead to random failures in digital systems where only 1s and 0s are expected.  
           [0003]    Over 35 years ago, random mysterious failures in early digital electronic systems led to the discovery of metastable behavior in flip flops and the conditions under which metastable behavior are exhibited. Metastability often occurs when flip flops have asynchronous inputs and the asynchronous inputs violate the setup and hold conditions of the flip flops. For example, a common type of flip flop is the D flip flop. One variation of this flip flop has a data input, a clock input and a data output. On the rising edge of the clock input, the data input is sampled and stored in the flip flop. The data output changes after a delay to reflect the stored data. However, for the D flip flop to function as described, the data input must be stable for some period of time before the rising clock edge appears, and remain stable for some period of time after the rising clock edge passes. The period of time before the appearance of the rising clock edge is called the setup time. The period of time after the rising clock edge passes is called the hold time. FIG. 2 illustrates the D flip flop setup and hold times. If the data input is not stable during the setup and hold time, a condition known as a setup and hold violation, the flip flop may go into a metastable state and the data output will not be a 1 or a 0 as desired.  
           [0004]    An asynchronous input signal is a signal which may arrive at any moment. The signal has no defined time relationship relative to the clock of the receiving flip flop. Asynchronous signals commonly occur in systems with multiple clocks. A signal may be generated in one clock domain and be transmitted to another clock domain. If the source clock and the destination clock have no fixed relationship, then the signal will arrive randomly from the perspective of the destination clock domain. Given this random arrival, the asynchronous signal will frequently not be stable during the setup and hold periods of the receiving flip flop.  
           [0005]    A common example of a system with multiple clocks is a communication network where a stream of data bits with an embedded clock arrives at a switch. The data and recovered clock constitute a clock domain which is separate from the clock domain of the switch. The two clock domains are often independent of each other. The input data must cross into the switch clock domain for examination in order to determine its next destination. The data may then have to cross into a third clock domain for transmission out of the switch at a different bit rate to another switch.  
           [0006]    Another example of a system with multiple clocks is in large semiconductor chips. Large chips are composed of groups of circuits which are often called modules or cores. Modules send and receive signals from other modules that may be clocked by different clocks from that of the sender. Thus, each module may constitute a separate and independent clock domain. While clocks within a module are typically distributed to the flip flops of the chip with low skew, chip sizes have grown so large that process, voltage, and temperature (“PVT”) variations across the chip make low skew clock distribution across the entire chip impossible. Thus, even modules clocked by the same frequency clocks may have unknown phase relationships between the sending and receiving clocks. Signals between such modules must then be viewed as asynchronous signals.  
           [0007]    The increasing expectations for reliable system operation, the increasing size of semiconductor chips, the prevalence of multiple clocks, the increasing clock frequencies and the amount of logic all join to make the prevention of metastability in flip flops a basic consideration in semiconductor chip design.  
         SUMMARY  
         [0008]    The invention provides methods and apparatus for preventing metastability in a bistable circuit.  
           [0009]    In general, in one aspect, the invention features methods and apparatus implementing techniques for prevention of metastability in a bistable circuit. The techniques include detecting a change in a data signal, sampling the detected change in reference to a sampling window of a clock signal input of a bistable circuit to determine if the detected change occurs within the sampling window, and selecting a stable data input to present to an input of the bistable circuit based on whether the detected change occurs within the sampling window. The sampling window represents a time period during which a change in the data signal can cause metastability in a bistable circuit.  
           [0010]    Particular implementations can include one or more of the following features. The technique can include delaying the clock signal to the bistable circuit to match the time of arrival of the data signal at the bistable circuit. The technique can include holding the result of the sampling until a clock transition occurs at the bistable circuit. The technique can also include generating a fixed width pulse in response to detecting a change in the data signal, where sampling the detected change includes sampling the fixed width pulse.  
           [0011]    The sampling window can include the setup and hold time of the bistable circuit. The selected stable input can be a delayed copy of the data signal. The delayed copy of the data signal can be delayed by at least an amount equal to the setup and hold time of the bistable circuit. The selected stable input can be an inverted and delayed copy of the data signal. The selected stable input can be outputted from the bistable circuit. The selected stable input can be a static value. The bistable circuit can include a flip flop or a latch.  
           [0012]    In general, in another aspect, the invention features a circuit for prevention of metastability in a flip flop. The circuit includes a transition detect circuit configured to detect when a transition has occurred in a data input signal for a bistable circuit, a sample and hold circuit configured to determine if a transition detected in the transition detect circuit occurred in a sampling window representing a time period during which a transition in the data input can cause metastability in the bistable circuit, and a data selection circuit configured to select a stable input for the bistable circuit based on the output of the sample and hold circuit.  
           [0013]    Particular implementations can include one or more of the following features. The transition detect circuit can include a first delay element coupled to the data input signal and a two input exclusive OR gate, where a first input of the exclusive OR gate is coupled to the data input signal and a second input is coupled to the output of the first delay element.  
           [0014]    The sample and hold circuit can includes a first delay element receiving a clock signal for the bistable circuit as an input, a second delay element receiving the output of the first delay element as an input, a three input AND gate receiving the clock signal as a first input, an inverted output of the second delay as a second input and the output of the transition detection circuit as a third input, and a holding circuit to hold the output of the three input AND gate.  
           [0015]    The holding circuit can include a two input OR gate receiving the output of the three input AND gate as a first input and a two input AND gate receiving the output of the first delay element as a first input, where the output of the two input AND gate is provided as a second input to the OR gate and the output of the OR gate is provided as a second input to the two input AND gate. Alternatively, the holding circuit can include a two input OR gate receiving the output of the three input AND gate as a first input and a delayed version of the output of the three input AND gate as a second input.  
           [0016]    The data selection circuit can include a multiplexer having two data inputs and a select input, where the multiplexer receives a delayed version of the data signal as a first data input, a stable signal as a second data input, and the output of the sample and hold circuit as the select input, and where the multiplexer selects the first input as an output if the select input is low and the second input as the output if the select input is high. The data selection circuit can further include a delay element providing the first data input, where the delay element is coupled to receive a delayed version of the data input signal as an input. The data selection circuit can also include a delay element providing the second data input, where the delay element coupled to receive a delayed version of the data input signal as an input. The delay element providing the second data input can be configured to delay and invert the received delayed version of the data input signal. The stable input can include a static value. The stable input can include an output of the bistable circuit.  
           [0017]    The circuit for prevention of metastability can also include a clock delay circuit to provide a delayed clock signal to the bistable circuit to match the data signal arriving at the bistable circuit.  
           [0018]    The invention can be implemented to realize one or more of the following advantages. A metastability prevention circuit ensures input to a bistable circuit, such as a flip flop or latch, is always stable immediately before and after a clock transition. Signals which cross clock domains can be synchronized, such as in network chips which handle multiple bit streams with different bit rates, or processor chips which have skewed clocks across large dice. The metastability prevention circuit of the invention can eliminate one to two cycles of latency, is easy to use and implement and is compatible with available design flows. It can be implemented as a library element by logic designers, allowing an efficient and simple solution to the problem of metastability.  
           [0019]    The details of one or more embodiments of the invention are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features, objects, and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims. 
       
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS  
       [0020]    [0020]FIG. 1 is a graph illustrating two stable states connected by a metastable state.  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 2 is illustrates setup and hold windows of an input with respect to a rising clock edge.  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a high level representation of a circuit to prevent metastability in bistable circuits.  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 4 illustrates an implementation of a circuit preventing metastability in bistable circuits.  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 5 illustrates operation of the transition detector and the sample and hold logic of the circuit of FIG. 4.  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 6 illustrates the operation of the data selection and the bistable circuit.  
         [0026]    [0026]FIG. 7 illustrates an alternative implementation of a circuit preventing metastability in bistable circuits.  
         [0027]    [0027]FIG. 8 illustrates the complete sequence of steps when a data change will likely violate the setup and hold stability requirements. 
     
    
       [0028]    Like reference symbols in the various drawings indicate like elements.  
       DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0029]    A technique to prevent metastability in bistable circuits, such as flip flops or latches, uses a sampling window to detect a transition in an input that occurs at an unsuitable time, such as during setup or hold, and selects an alternate stable data input when such an unsuitably timed transition is detected. The technique includes detecting changes in an input signal and outputting change detected pulses, sampling the change detected pulses at a fixed time, holding the result of the sampling, and selecting a stable input to be presented to the bistable circuit. The technique also includes delaying the clock to the flip flop.  
         [0030]    As illustrated in FIG. 3, a metastability prevention circuit includes a transition detect circuit  310 , a sample and hold circuit  320 , a data selection circuit  330 , and a clock delay  340  to prevent metastability in bistable circuit, such as flip flop  350 .  
         [0031]    Transition detect circuit  310  receives a data input  360  and detects if a transition has occurred in the data input  360 . Sample and hold circuit  320  receives the output from the transition detect circuit  310  and a clock signal  370 . The sample and hold circuit  320  samples the output of the transition detect circuit  310  using a sampling window based on the clock signal  370 , and holds the sampling to transmit to the data selection circuit  330 .  
         [0032]    The data selection circuit  330  receives the output of the sample and hold circuit  320  and the data input  360 . If the output of the sample and hold circuit indicates that a change occurred during the sampling window, the data selection circuit  330  selects a stable input to forward to flip flop  350 . Flip flop  350  also receives the output of clock delay circuit  340 , which delays the clock signal  370  to match the delay to the data input received by flip flop  350 . Output  380  is the output of flip flop  350 .  
         [0033]    [0033]FIG. 4 illustrates an implementation of the block diagram of FIG. 3. Transition detection circuit  310  includes a delay element  411  and an exclusive OR gate  412 . Delay  411  receives data input  360  as an input. The output of delay  411  is received by exclusive OR gate  412  along with data input  360 . Exclusive OR gate  412  outputs a high signal when its two inputs are not equal, e.g., when data input  360  is high and output of delay  411  is low or when the output of delay  411  is high and data input  360  is low. Thus, when the data input  360  changes, the exclusive OR gate  412  will generate a pulse proportional to the delay of the delay element  411 . For a flip flop or a latch, the width of the pulse generated by OR gate  412  can be very small. In some embodiments, the pulse generated by OR gate  412  can include a fixed width pulse to allow the metastability prevention circuit to be used for other types of circuits that are susceptible to metastability, such as registers.  
         [0034]    Referring to FIG. 5, the “input” and “input_delay” waveforms represent input signals for exclusive OR gate  412 . The “change_detected” waveform represents the output signal of exclusive OR gate  412 . The illustration shows only a low to high change but a high to low change will yield the same result.  
         [0035]    Referring to FIGS. 4 and 5, the sample and hold circuit  320  is implemented by the three input AND gate  421 , the inverter  422 , a second delay element  423 , a two input OR gate  424 , a two input AND gate  425 , and a third delay element  426 . The second delay element  423  and third delay element  426  delay clock signal  370 , and inverter  422  inverts the output of the third delay element  426 . The three input AND gate  421  receives the output of inverter  422 , clock signal  370  and the output of transition detection circuit  310  (i.e., the output of exclusive OR gate  412 ) as inputs. Clock signal  370 , represented by the “clock” waveform in FIG. 5, and the output of the inverter  422  (i.e., a delayed inverted version of the clock signal  370 ), represented as the “clock_invert” waveform, define a sampling window. The amount of delay defines the sampling window. When the sampling window overlaps a “Change_Detected” pulse, the AND gate  421  will generate a pulse proportional to the degree of overlap. The output of AND gate  421  is represented by the “Bad_News” waveform. Thus, gate  421  examines whether a change has occurred in the data input during the sampling window.  
         [0036]    The two input OR gate  424  and the two input AND gate  425  form a latch circuit to hold the result of the sampling performed by AND gate  421 . OR gate  424  receives the output of AND gate  421  as one input, and the output of AND gate  425  as another input. The output of OR gate  424  is fed back as an input to AND gate  425 . The AND gate  425  receives the output of second delay element  426  as its other input. The AND gate  425  can alternatively receive clock signal  370  directly. However, this places an additional load on the clock driver.  
         [0037]    The latch constituted by AND gate  425  and OR gate  424  holds the output of AND gate  421  until the clock transition at the flip flop  350  has been made. The clock transition at the flip flop  350  stores the flip flop input data in the flip flop. Since the “bad_news” pulse occurs before the clock transition at the flip flop clock input, the “bad_news” pulse must be held.  
         [0038]    Referring to FIGS. 4 and 5, the waveform labeled “sample clock” is the output of delay element  426 , and the waveform labeled “hold_news” is the output of AND gate  425 . The “select alternate” waveform represents the output of OR gate  424 .  
         [0039]    The output of OR gate  424  is provided to data selection circuit  330 , and can be made available as a control output  490 . Control output  490  is an optional output which could be used to control the data selection of other multiplexers or be used to monitor the sampling and hold logic.  
         [0040]    The data selection circuit  330  selects a stable input for flip flop  350  when the output of the sample and hold circuit  320  (i.e., the output of OR gate  424 ) indicates that a change has occurred at an inopportune time (i.e., a change has occurred in the sampling window). In the circuit of FIG. 4, two different delayed versions of the data input  360  are used as possible stable inputs for selection by the data selection circuit  330 . Even if the data input  360  is changing at an inopportune time, it is likely that the data input  360  will be stable at a later point in time. Thus, a delayed version of the data input  360  can be used as a stable input if the data input  360  is changing at an inopportune time, such as during the setup or hold time of flip flop  350 .  
         [0041]    The data selection circuit  330  is implemented by the two input Multiplexer  431 , a fourth delay element  432 , and a fifth delay element  433 . Fourth delay element  432  receives a delayed version of data input  360  from delay element  411 , and fifth delay element  433  receives the output of fourth delay element  432 . The output of fourth delay element  432  corresponds to the delay caused by the transition detect circuit  310  and the sample and hold circuit  320 . The output of the fifth delay element allows the multiplexer to use another copy of the data input signal  360  at a later point in time which is not changing. The Multiplexer  431  input labeled “0” is connected to the output of delay element  432 . The Multiplexer input labeled “1” is connected to the output of delay element  433 . Multiplexer  431  receives the output of sample and hold circuit in its select input port “S”.  
         [0042]    When the Multiplexer input labeled “S” is low, the signal at the input labeled “0” is selected and made available at the Multiplexer output. When the Multiplexer input labeled “S” is a high, the signal at the input labeled “1” is selected and made available at the Multiplexer output. Thus, multiplexer  431  selects the input labeled “1” when an inopportune changed has occurred in data input  360 .  
         [0043]    Referring to FIGS. 4 and 6, the waveform labeled Select_Alternate represents the “S” input of multiplexer  431 . The waveform labeled “Input_Delay1” represents the input “0” and the waveform labeled “Input_Delay2” represents the input “1 of the multiplexer  431 . The waveform labeled “FF_Input” represents the output of the multiplexer  431 . Since “Input_Delay2” is just a delayed version of “Input_Delay1,” there is no change in the output when the Select_Alternate changes from a low to a high and “Input_Delay2” is selected instead of “Input_Delay 1”.  
         [0044]    If the “Select_Alternate” signal is low, then it means the “Input_Delay1” signal will not have changes during the setup and hold periods surrounding the flip flop clock. If the “Select_Alternate” signal is high, it indicates that the “Input_Delay1” signal is likely to violate the setup and hold requirements and an alternate stable signal should be selected. “Input_Delay2” is the input signal  360  with additional delays compared to “Input_Delay1”. An asynchronous signal which needs to be synchronized will often have only one change during a clock cycle. Thus, it is reasonable to assume that selecting another copy of the signal with more delay will insure the signal is stable with respect to the flip flop clock edge.  
         [0045]    Another choice for the alternate input signal is an inverted and delayed version of the input signal  360 . Other choices may be a static 1, a static 0, the flip flop  350  output, or the inverted flip flop  350  output. For example, if it is known that the data signal  360  is changing a lot, it may be preferable to use a static input for input “1” of the multiplexer  431  instead of a delayed version of the data signal  360 . If a static 1 or 0 is used, then the multiplexer  431  may be replaced with an OR gate or NOR gate, depending on system design considerations which are outside of the scope of this invention.  
         [0046]    The multiplexer  431  output is connected to the flip flop  350  data input “D”. The clock delay circuit  340  is implemented by a sixth delay element  441 . The clock input of the flip flop  350  is connected to the output of the delay element  441 . The flip flop  350  synchronizes the asynchronous input data  360  to the clock domain of the clock signal  370 . The flip flop output  380  is the synchronized version of the asynchronous input  360 .  
         [0047]    The waveform labeled “FF_Input” is the data input of the flip flop  350 , and the waveform labeled “Output” is the output of the flip flop. The waveform labeled “FF_Clock” is the output of delay element  441 . The flip flop “Output” changes after the rising edge of “FF_Clock” to reflect the “FF_Input” state prior to the rising clock edge.  
         [0048]    The values of the six delay elements  411 ,  423 ,  426 ,  432 ,  433 ,  441  will depend on the specific technology used to implement metastability prevention. The setup and hold requirements of the flip flop, the delays through the Multiplexer, AND, OR, Inverter, and exclusive OR gates will all affect the delay values of the six delay lines elements  411 ,  423 ,  426 ,  432 ,  433 ,  441 . Although some guidelines are provided to assist in setting the delay values, detailed implementation-specific simulation will be needed to establish actual delay values and the guidelines provided are not intended to be complete.  
         [0049]    Delay element  411  needs to provide, at a minimum, sufficient delay for the exclusive OR gate  412  to generate a pulse wide enough to be recognized by the following three input AND gate  421 . Delay element  432  needs to provide sufficient delay to match the total delays of the exclusive OR gate  412 , three input AND gate  421 , and two input OR gate  424 . The delay from the data signal  360  to the multiplexer  431  “S” input needs to be approximately the same as the delay from the data signal  360  to the multiplexer  431  “0” input.  
         [0050]    Delay element  433  needs to provide, at a minimum, sufficient delay to equal the setup plus the hold time of the flip flop  350 . This will ensure that any changes in the data signal  360  which caused the selection of an alternate signal will be displaced by the delay amount.  
         [0051]    Delay element  426  is primarily a buffer to reduce the loading on the Clock signal so the delay amount is not critical. However, in combination with delay element  423  and inverter  422 , delay element  426  defines the trailing edge of the sampling window. The sampling window must be wide enough to allow the three input AND gate  421  to generate a pulse wide enough to propagate through the OR gate  424  and the two input AND gate  425  when the exclusive OR gate  412  generates a “Change_Detected” pulse which is coincident.  
         [0052]    Delay element  441  must generate sufficient delay to allow an alternate data selection to be made and the flip flop  350  input to be stable before the clock edge arrives.  
         [0053]    The circuit illustrated in FIG. 4 can also be implemented in other forms which are functionally equivalent. For example, the circuit can be implemented as:  
         Select_Alternate=Bad_News|(Select_Alternate &amp; Clock_Delay)  
         [0054]    or  
         Select_Alternate=˜Bad_News &amp; (˜Select_Alternate|˜Clock_Delay)  
         [0055]    where “˜” is the inversion operator, “|”is the OR operator, and “&amp;” is the AND operator. Thus, the inverted version of “Select_Alternate” can be generated using a two input OR gate and a two input AND gate. The inverted version of “Bad_News” may be generated using a three input NAND gate.  
         [0056]    [0056]FIG. 7 shows an alternate circuit for holding the result of the sampling until the flip flop  350  has been clocked. In this circuit, the delay gate  725  needs to provide sufficient delay until the clock edge has arrived at the flip flop. Using this circuit obviates the need for delay element  426 . FIG. 7 also shows how delay elements  723  and  741  may have inverted outputs which removes the need for the inverter  422 . FIG. 7 also shows the inverted output Qn of flip flop output  380 .  
         [0057]    In some configurations, the delay to multiplexer  431  “1” input must be less than the delay to the multiplexer  431  “0” input. Thus, delay elements  732  and  733  can be in parallel instead of in series. The parallel arrangement of delay elements  732  and  733  allows the delays introduced by delay element  732  and delay element  733  to be independent of each other. Thus, each of delay element  732  and delay element  733  can be more or less than the other. Delay element  733  can also generate an inverted copy of the data as the input to the multiplexer. The inverted copy of the data is essentially what the data is changing to. So, a look-ahead function is achieved by providing the anticipated value of the data as the value to be stored in the flip flop  350 .  
         [0058]    [0058]FIG. 8 shows the complete sequence of steps when an “Input Data” change will likely violate the setup and hold requirements. The “Input” and “Input_Delay” signals combine to generate the “Change_Detected” pulse. The “Clock” and “Clock_Invert” signals overlap the “Change_Detected” pulse to generate the “Bad_News” pulse. The “Bad_News” pulse goes through the two input OR gate  424  to cause the “Select_Alternate” signal to go high. The “Select_Alternate” signal combines with the “Sample_Clock” signal to cause the “Hold_News” signal to go high and stay high until the “Sample_Clock” signal goes low. “Input_Delay1” and “Input_Delay2” are delayed versions of the “Input” signal. The “Select_Alternate” signal selects the “Input_Delay2” signal for the output of the multiplexer  431 , which is labeled “FF_Input.” The “FF_Input” is clocked by the “FF_Clock” signal to result in the “Output” signal going low. Thus, it can be seen that an “Input” signal which is changing too close to the “Clock” signal is prevented from inducing metastability in the flip flop  350 .  
         [0059]    A number of embodiments of the invention have been described. Nevertheless, it will be understood that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, although a flip flop is shown as the bistable circuit, a similar metastability prevention circuit can be used for a latch. Although the latch is level sensitive device instead of an edge sensitive device like the flip flop, the same or similar components can be used with adjustments to the delay elements. Also the use of gates can be varied, such as, for example, an OR gate can be replaced with a NOR gate. Accordingly, other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims.