Fully symmetrical online monitoring unit capable of stable working within near-threshold region and control circuit

Abstract

The invention discloses a fully symmetrical online monitoring unit capable of stable working within a near-threshold region and a control circuit. Compared with common online monitoring units, according to the invention, the online monitoring unit does not need to reserve a time delay unit and replaces an original trigger in the common online monitoring unit with a latch, and designs a data jump monitor which has fewer transistors than a shadow latch in the common online monitoring unit. The data jump monitor can work stably within the near-threshold region, has a time delay of inverter magnitudes, has the characteristics of fastness and stability which enable the control system to rapidly respond to alerts, avoids actual time-sequence errors, and finally reduces the area and power consumption of the online monitoring unit maximumly. In addition, according to the invention, since the online monitoring unit uses the latch of which the time borrowing characteristics enable the online monitoring unit to resist errors of circuit time-sequence caused by PVT deviation under near-threshold, the online monitoring unit completely eliminates the time-sequence residual reserved when designed, and has ensured higher power consumption. Also, the invention discloses a control circuit which is in cooperation to the online monitoring unit so as to better achieve functions of the entire system.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention relates to the technical field of integrated circuit design low power consumption, in particular to the technical field of self-adaptive voltage frequency adjustment based on online timing monitoring. Background technique [0002] With the rapid development of integrated circuit technology, advanced manufacturing technology has entered the nanometer era, and the functions of SoC (System on Chip) chips are becoming more and more powerful. High performance and low power consumption are always the two pursuit goals, and these two indicators are Containing each other, the pure pursuit of low power consumption will lead to a huge deterioration in performance. The study found that the lowest energy consumption point of the circuit under advanced technology is generally in the sub-threshold region, while the highest energy efficiency of the circuit is in the near-threshold region. When the threshold is reached, the delay of the circuit continue...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0003] However, there are still important unresolved problems in the near-threshold SoC circuit: In the conventional voltage region, due to the PVT (Process, Voltage, Temperature) deviation caused by the continuous shrinking of the process size, it is necessary to reserve a certain amount in the traditional VLSI design. Timing margin to meet worst-case timing constraints

[0005] Since the delay change is more affected by various deviations under low voltage, ordinary online monitoring units are faced with the problem of not being able to cover the deviations

In addition, due to various larger deviations under low voltage, the monitoring window of the monitoring unit needs to be reserved larger, which will cause more delay units to be added to the design of ordinary monitoring units to ensure that the monitoring window is large enough. This results in more area and power overhead, reducing the benefits of in-line timing monitoring techniques

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