Patent Document

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to a digital information processing integrated circuit (IC), and more particularly to a digital information processing IC for detecting a delay between interfacing clocks and setting initial data loading/unloading parameters of the IC automatically. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a clocked system having a master circuit  10  such as a microprocessor, e.g., CPU, and a slave circuit  20  such as a semiconductor memory device and a signal bus (or system bus). Referring to FIG. 1, the slave circuit  20  is externally interfaced with the master circuit  10  through clock and data paths. The master circuit  10  generates a clock signal CLK_OUT and data DATA_OUT which are intended for the slave circuit  20 . The slave circuit  20  receives the clock signal CLK_OUT and the data DATA_OUT, and then generates a clock signal CLK_IN and data DATA_IN for the master circuit  10 . The clock signal CLK_IN is a feedback clock signal of the output clock signal CLK_OUT. The master circuit  10  uses the clock signal CLK_IN in loading the data DATA_IN from the slave circuit  20 , and processes the loaded input data DATA_IN internally with the clock signal CLK_OUT. 
     FIGS. 2A-2C are timing diagrams illustrating a relationship between input and output clock signals CLK_IN and CLK_OUT of the master circuit of FIG.  1 . Referring to FIGS. 2A-2C, there exists a delay between the clock signals CLK_OUT and CLK_IN caused by the structure of the motherboard, which includes the master circuit  10  and slave circuit  20 . 
     In prior systems, the delay did not cause a substantial problem because of the relatively low clock speed of the circuits. As shown in FIG. 2A, the low clock speed ensures a sufficient operating margin for data loading and unloading operations of the master circuit  10 . Recent improvements in technology have caused the clock speed of the master circuit  10  and the slave circuit  20  to increase. As shown in FIG. 2B, as the clock speed of the circuits  10  and  20  increases, the operating margin is reduced. As a result, the data DATA_IN from the slave circuit  20  can be transmitted to the master circuit  10  with undesirable faults. To illustrate, referring to FIG. 2C, if the clock speed is so high so as not to ensure the operating margin, it is difficult to transmit the data DATA_IN to the master circuit without error. The data unloading process of the master circuit  10  cannot be performed after the data loading operation, since the output clock signal CLK_OUT occurs prior to the input clock signal CLK_IN, without the operating margin. In particular, in a high-performance computer system, avoiding this interfacing problem becomes more difficult as processing speed increases. One solution of the problem is a clock forwarding method. 
     FIG. 3 is a timing diagram illustrating a relationship between input and output clock signals CLK_IN and CLK_OUT of the master circuit  10  of FIG. 1 in which a clock forwarding method is applied. In this method, several clock periods corresponding to the delay are forwarded to the output clock signal CLK_OUT by a clock forwarding circuit  100  of FIG.  1 . Thus, the data unloading process of the master circuit  10  can be performed after the data loading operation. Therefore, the input data DATA_IN from the slave circuit  20  can is transmitted to the master circuit  10  without error. 
     Initial data loading/unloading parameters of the clock forwarding circuit  100  must be determined. Generally, the initial parameters are predetermined and stored manually in an external read only memory (ROM) (not shown) coupled to the clock forwarding circuit  100  as a fixed value by a motherboard designer. In initializing the master circuit  10  after powering up, the initial parameters are loaded to the clock forwarding circuit  100  such that clocks can be forwarded. As shown in FIG. 3, by forwarding clocks, the loaded input data from the slave circuit  20  can be unloaded to the master circuit  10  in faultless fashion. 
     Examples of the clock forwarding method are illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,811,364 to Sager et al., issued on Mar. 7, 1989, “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR STABILIZED DATA TRANSMISSION”; U.S. Pat. No. 4,979,190 to Sager et al., issued on Dec. 18, 1990, “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR STABILIZED DATA TRANSMISSION”; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,525,849 to Wolf, issued on Jun. 25, 1985, “DATA TRANSMISSION FACILITY BETWEEN TWO ASYNCHRONOUSLY CONTROLLED DATA PROCESSING SYSTEMS WITH A BUFFER MEMORY”, all of whose discloses are incorporated herein by reference. 
     As described above, in prior conventional systems, the initial parameters for forwarding clocks are provided manually by a motherboard designer, so that product cost is increased in proportion to the increased labor. In addition, since the initial parameters are stored to the external ROM as fixed values, undesirable faults of data transmission can occur due to product deviation. For these reasons, it is difficult to stabilize data transmission between clocked circuits. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a digital information processing IC for automatically detecting a delay between interfacing clocks and setting initial data loading/unloading parameters to stabilize data transmission between clocked circuits. 
     In order to attain the above objects, according to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a digital system comprising a master circuit having a clock forwarding circuit for generating a first clock signal and a slave circuit coupled to the master circuit for generating a second clock signal synchronized with the first clock signal. The clock forwarding circuit receives the second clock signal, detects a delay between the first and second clock signals, and sets initial data load/unload parameters of the master circuit based on the detected delay. 
     In one aspect, the clock forwarding circuit of the invention includes a clock generator for generating a clock signal and a data control logic coupled to the clock generator and an internal data bus, the data control logic outputting data to a slave circuit in response to the clock signal. An output clock control logic is coupled to the clock generator to provide the clock signal to the slave circuit as an output clock signal by controlling the clock signal. A delay detection circuit detects a delay between the output clock signal and an input clock signal and generates an initial parameter for forwarding clocks corresponding to the detected delay. The input clock signal is a feedback clock signal of the output clock signal. A load/unload clock control logic is coupled to the delay detection circuit and the input clock control logic to generate load control signals and unload control signals in response to the initial parameter. An input clock control logic is coupled between the clock generator and the load/unload clock control logic to provide the clock signal from the clock generator to the load/unload clock control logic by controlling the clock signal. A load/unload multiplexer loads input data from the slave circuit and unloads the loaded input data to the internal data bus of the master circuit via the data control logic in response to the load and unload control signals from the load/unload clock control logic. 
     As is apparent from the foregoing, according to the digital system of the invention, data transmission between clocked circuits can be performed without error independently of the delay. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The foregoing and other objects, features, and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following more particular description of preferred embodiments of the invention, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which like reference characters refer to the same parts throughout the different views. The drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention. 
     FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a clocked system including a master circuit and a slave circuit. 
     FIGS. 2A-2C are timing diagram illustrating a relationship between input and output clock signals of the master circuit of FIG.  1 . 
     FIG. 3 is a timing diagram illustrating a relationship between input and output clock signals of the master circuit of FIG. 1 according to a clock forwarding method. 
     FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a clock forwarding circuit of a master circuit according to one embodiment of the present invention. 
     FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram illustrating one embodiment of a delay detection circuit of FIG. 4 in accordance with the present invention. 
     FIG. 6 is a timing diagram illustrating an operation of the delay detection circuit of FIG.  5 . 
     FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an initial parameter corresponding to a maximum delay detected by the delay detection circuit of FIG.  5 . 
     FIG. 8 is a circuit diagram illustrating one embodiment of a load/unload clock control logic of FIG. 4 in accordance with the present invention. 
     FIG. 9 is a timing diagram illustrating an operation of the load/unload clock control logic of FIG.  8 . 
     FIG. 10 is a circuit diagram illustrating one embodiment of a load/unload multiplexer of FIG. 4 in accordance with the present invention. 
     FIG. 11 is a timing diagram illustrating operation of the clock forwarding circuit of FIG.  4 . 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a clock forwarding circuit according to the present invention. Referring to FIG. 4, the clock forwarding circuit  100  comprises a clock generator  110 , an output clock control logic  120 , an internal data bus  130 , an input clock control logic  140 , a load/unload clock control logic  150 , a loading/unloading multiplexer (MUX)  160 , a data control logic  170 , and a delay detection circuit  180 . 
     The clock generator  110  generates a bit clock for data input and output. The output clock control logic  120  generates an output clock signal CLK_OUT to the slave circuit by controlling the clock signal from the clock generator  110 . An output data DATA_OUT from the internal data bus  130  of the master circuit is outputted to the slave circuit through the data control logic  170 . 
     The slave circuit receives the clock signal CLK_OUT and the data DATA_OUT and then outputs an input clock signal CLK_IN and an input data DATA_IN to the clock forwarding circuit  100  of the master circuit. The input clock signal CLK_IN is a feedback clock signal of the output clock signal CLK_OUT. Between the output clock signal CLK_OUT and the input clock signal CLK_IN, a delay exists due to the structure of the motherboard including the master circuit and the slave circuit. 
     To stabilize data transmission between the circuits, the delay detection circuit  180  automatically detects the delay and generates an initial parameter Init_UNLD and applies the signal to the load/unload clock control logic  150 . The initial parameter Init_UNLD corresponds to the delay. 
     The load/unload clock control logic  150  generates a plurality of load control signals LDs and unload control signals UNLDs and applies them to the load/unload multiplexer (MUX)  160  in response to the input clock signal CLK_IN and a controlled clock signal CLK_OUT′ from the input clock control logic  140 . In the load/unload clock control logic  160 , the load and unload control signals LD and UNLD are started from their initial values. An initial unload control signal UNLD is set by the initial parameter Init_UNLD, and an initial load control signal LD is set to “00”. 
     Using the load and unload control signals LDs and UNLDs, the load/unload MUX  160  can load the input data DATA_IN and unload the loaded input data DATA_IN to the master circuit through the data control logic  170  without faults independently of the delay. 
     FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram illustrating one embodiment of a delay detection circuit  180  shown in FIG.  4 . Referring to FIG. 5, the delay detection circuit  180  comprises a detecting unit  188 , a comparison unit  195  and a control unit  198 . 
     The detecting unit  188  detects the delay between the output clock signal CLK_OUT and the input clock signal CLK_IN. The comparison unit  195  compares the number of N detected delays and outputs the compared result as the initial parameter Init_UNLD to the load/unload clock control logic  150  when all detected delays are equal. Otherwise, if all detected delays are not equal, the control unit  198  concludes that the delay is not detected correctly. In that case, the control logic  198  resets the clock generator  110  and the detecting unit  188 , and then controls the comparison unit  195  to compare the detected delays by N-bit free running after releasing the clock generator  110 , until all detected delays are equal. 
     The detecting unit  188  includes a counting circuit  181  and a delay detecting circuit  184 . The counting circuit  181  includes a first D flip-flop  182  and a second D flip-flop  183 . Each flip-flop toggles in response to the output clock signal CLK_OUT from the master circuit. The delay detecting circuit  184  includes a third D flip-flop  185 , a fourth D flip-flop  186 , and a R-S flip-flop  187 . An output of the first D flip-flop  182  is coupled to an input of the third D flip-flop  185 . Similarly, an output of the second D flip-flop  183  is coupled to an input of the fourth D flip-flop  186 . The third and fourth D flip-flops  185  and  186  detect the delay in response to the counted result from the counting circuit  181  and the input clock signal CLK_IN from the slave circuit. The input clock signal CLK_IN is inputted to the third and fourth D flip-flops  185  and  186  through the S-R flip-flop  187  as a clock signal. 
     The comparison unit  195  includes a latching circuit  192  and a comparator  193 . The latching circuit  192  has a de-multiplexer  191  and N pieces of latch, for latching each most significant bit (MSB) and each least significant bit (LSB) of the detected delays from the detecting unit  188  by N-bit free running. The comparator  193  has two exclusive-OR (XOR) gates and one NOR gate. Each XOR gate receives the number of N MSBs and the number of N LSBs of the detected results through the de-multiplexer  191 , respectively. The XOR gates compare the MSBs and LSBs of the detected results whether or not all detected results are equal. The compared results from the XOR gates are inputted to the NOR gate. If all detected results are equal, the NOR gate outputs a logic high level (“1”). In that case, the LSB and the MSB are outputted to the load/unload clock control logic  150  as the initial parameter Init_UNLD. On the contrary, if all detected results are not equal, the NOR gate outputs a logic low level (“0”). In that case, the clock generator  110  and the detecting unit  188  are reset by the control unit  198 . 
     The control unit  198  includes system clock control logic  196  and an N-bit free running counter/decoder  197 . The N bit free running counter/decoder  197  is coupled between the system clock control logic  196  and the latching circuit  192 . The N-bit free running counter/decoder  197  is enabled when the output of the comparator  193  is “0”. The N-bit free running counter/decoder  197  controls the de-multiplexer  191  so as to perform N-bit free running and provides the clock signal from the clock generator  110  to these latches of the latching circuit  192 . The system clock control logic  196  is coupled the comparator  193 , the detecting unit  188 , the N-bit free running counter/decoder  197  and the clock generator  110 . If the comparator  193  outputs “0” to the system clock control logic  196 , the system clock control logic  196  resets the clock generator  110  and the detecting unit  188 . When the clock generator  110  is released after resetting, the system clock control unit  196  transmits the clock signal from the clock generator  110  to the N-bit free running counter/decoder  197 . 
     FIG. 6 is a timing diagram illustrating operation of the delay detection circuit of FIG.  5 . Referring to FIGS. 5 and 6, the first and second D flip-flops  182 ,  183  toggle in response to the output clock signal CLK_OUT. A wave of F/F&lt; 1 &gt; is a toggled result of the first D flip-flop  182 , and another wave of F/F&lt; 0 &gt; is a toggle result of the second D flip-flop  183 , respectively. The delay detecting circuit  184  detects the delay between the output clock signal CLK_OUT and the input clock signal CLK_IN in response to the toggled results F/F&lt; 0 &gt; and F/F&lt; 1 &gt; and the input clock signal CLK_IN. 
     As shown in the FIG. 6, if a maximum delay between the clocks CLK_OUT and CLK_IN is greater than 1 bit time and less than 2 bit times, the detected delay is “11” which is derived from the toggled results F/F&lt; 0 &gt; and F/F&lt; 1 &gt; at a rising edge of the input clock signal CLK_IN. 
     As described above, if the number of N detected delays are not equal, the system clock control logic  196  resets the clock generator  110  and the detecting unit  188  by a reset signal Reset. 
     After releasing of the clock generator  110 , the above delay detecting method is repeated until all detected delays are equal. 
     FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an initial parameter corresponding to a maximum delay detected by the delay detection circuit of FIG.  5 . Referring to FIG. 7, the initial parameter Init_UNLD is determined by the detected maximum delay. As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, if the maximum delay is greater than 1 bit time and less than 2 bit times, the initial parameter Init_UNLD is determined to be “11”, since the fetched result F&lt; 1 : 0 &gt; is “11”. For example, if the maximum delay is less than 1 bit time, the initial parameter Init_UNLD is determined to be “01”. 
     FIG. 8 is a circuit diagram illustrating one embodiment of a load/unload clock control logic  150  shown in FIG. 4, and FIG. 9 is a timing diagram illustrating operation of the load/unload clock control logic  150  of FIG.  8 . Referring to FIG. 8, the load/unload clock control logic  150  includes an unload control signal generating circuit  152  and a load control signal generating circuit  154 . The unload control signal generating circuit  152  includes two D flip-flops for generating a plurality of unload control signals UNLDs by receiving the controlled clock signal CLK_OUT′ from the input clock control logic  140  and the detected initial parameter Init_UNLD from the delay detection circuit  180 . An initial unload control signal UNLD is set by the initial parameter Init_UNLD. Similarly, the load control signal generating circuit  154  includes two D flip-flops for generating a plurality of load control signals LDs by toggling in response to the input clock signal CLK_IN from the slave circuit. An initial load control signal LD is set to “00”. 
     Referring to FIG. 9, if the initial unload control signal UNLD is set to “11”, the unload control signal UNLD is recursively generated to “10”, “00”, “01”, and “11” in response to the controlled clock signal CLK_OUT′. However, the load control signal LD is always recursively generated to “01”, “11”, “10”, and “00” in response to the input clock signal CLK_IN. 
     FIG. 10 is a circuit diagram illustrating one embodiment of a load/unload multiplexer  160  shown in FIG.  4 . Referring to FIG. 10, the load/unload multiplexer  160  includes a data loading circuit  161  and a data unloading circuit  166 . The data loading circuit  161  has a data loading decoder  162  and a plurality of data loading multiplexers  163 . The data unloading circuit  166  has a data unloading decoder  167  and a plurality of data unloading multiplexers  168 . In that case, the number of inputted load control signals LD and unload control signals UNLD is four. Thus, the loading multiplexers  163  and unloading multiplexers  168  are each composed of four multiplexers. 
     Each of data loading multiplexers  163  loads the input data DATA_IN from the slave circuit in response to the decoded load control signals LD. Similarly, each of data unloading multiplexers  168  unloads the loaded input data DATA_IN to the internal data bus of the master circuit in response to the decoded unload control signals UNLD. 
     FIG. 11 is a timing diagram illustrating operation of the clock forwarding circuit  100  shown in FIG.  4 . Referring to FIGS. 10 and 11, for example, if the initial unload control signal UNLD is set to “11”, the unload control signal UNLD is recursively generated to “10”, “00”, “01”, and “11” in response to the output clock signal CLK_OUT, and the load control signal LD is recursively generated to “01”, “11”, “10”, and “00” in response to the input clock signal CLK_IN. Each of the multiplexers  163  and  168  is turned on in response to the load and unload control signals LD and UNLD so as to load/unload the input data DATA_IN, respectively. 
     If the initial unload control signal UNLD is set to “11”, it means that the maximum delay is greater than 1 bit time and less than 2 bit times. Thus, the clock forwarding circuit according to the present invention forwards two clocks corresponding to the unload control signals UNLDs “10” and “00” to stabilize the data transmission between the clocked circuits, independently of the delay. 
     Therefore, after forwarding clocks, the data loading multiplexers  163  load the input data DATA_IN in response to the load control signal LD of “01”, “11”, “10”, and “00”, respectively. And then the data unloading multiplexers  168  unload the loaded input data DATA_IN in response to the unload control signal UNLD of “01”, “11”, “10”, and “00”, respectively. Thus, for example, the input data DATA_IN loaded by the load control signal LD of “01” can be unloaded to the master circuit by the unload control signal UNLD of “01”. As a result, the data transmission between the clocked circuits can be performed without faults independently of the delay, by automatically detecting the delay between the interfacing clocks and forwarding clocks corresponding to the detected delay. 
     While this invention has been particularly shown and described with references to preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

Technology Category: h