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--- asic:timing:forks [2024/02/02 06:39]
rajit [Timing forks in ACT]
+++ asic:timing:forks [2024/02/02 07:02] (current)
rajit [Related concepts]
@@ Line 22: / Line 22: @@
 ACT provides syntax to refer to these nodes in a limited fashion. Instead of being able to specify nodes using all the information needed, we simply refer to nodes at the point when a signal changes. Furthermore, we always consider all possible occurrences of the signal change, rather than a specific one (e.g. the seventh occurrence of a signal change). As common timing forks can relate difference occurrence indices, we provide [[language:langs:spec#timing_constraints|syntax]] to refer to common scenarios in circuit design.
+===== Related concepts =====
+There are many closely related but slightly different notions that are used in the literature to
+describe timing constraints in a variety of circuit contexts.  Here we try and provide a simplified view of the differences and similarities between some common notions and timing forks.
+==== Setup and hold time ====
+In clocked design, a setup and hold time constraint for a state-holding element is used to ensure
+correct operation. We use positive edge-triggered flip-flops as the running example.
+The setup time constraint states that the data input to the flip-flop is stable for a certain time (the setup time) before the clock pin makes a zero-to-one transition. To see why this is also a timing fork constraint, we make the following observations:
+   * The only way to ensure that the setup time constraint is met is to //know// something about when the input to the flip-flop can change //with respect to// the clock pin of the same flip-flop.
+   * In synchronous logic, the built-in assumption is that this is possible because the input to the flip-flop is in the same clock domain as the flip-flop itself---in other words, comes from another set of flip-flops that share a common clock.
+   * The timing fork can be determined as follows. The common timing reference point is the common clock tree root that feeds the source flip-flops and the target flip-flop. The path from the clock root through the source flip-flop clock pins out through their data pins and combinational logic to the target flip-flop has a delay constraint relative to the path from the clock root to the clock pin of the target flip-flop.
+A similar argument can be made for hold time.
+==== Point-of-divergence constraint ====
+The delay from a common timing reference point via all possible circuit paths to two different signal transitions is sometimes referred to as a point-of-divergence constraint. Checking all possible paths through the circuit of this form is one possible way a timing fork constraint can be checked.
+However, note that an asynchronous circuit has cycles in the timing graph, so technically a point-of-divergence check would require checking an infinite number of paths.  So a point-of-divergence timing constraint makes much more sense when the timing graph is acyclic (as is the case in standard clocked circuits). Sometimes point-of-divergence constraints are used to check timing in an asynchronous circuit by explicitly cutting the cycles in the timing graph.
+Timing forks can be applied even when there are cycles in the timing graph because the nodes in the fork refer to specific occurrence indices of signal transitions. Hence, even though the timing graph is cyclic, the paths to be checked for a timing fork are bounded.
+==== Relative timing ====
+Relative timing is a methodology for designing asynchronous circuits where you can assume that
+two signal transitions are ordered due to timing. When you assume that ''a+'' occurs before ''b-'' for example,
+there is an implicit assumption that ''a+'' and ''b-'' occur, and the methodology is most commonly used to reason about control logic where this is a common scenario.
+Timing fork theory states that if the two transitions are guaranteed to be ordered, then a timing fork/zig-zag that is the basis for the ordering must exist.  In this sense, timing forks can be used to describe a relative
+timing constraint. However, a timing fork doesn't require that all the transitions occur. It can also refer to only a specific instance of a signal transition if that is all that is required; for example, we could say that the ''i''th occurence of ''a+'' occurs before the ''(i+1)''th occurrence of ''b-'' rather than the ''i''th occurrence of ''b-'' (or some other such relation).