Title :
A 2 ns access, 500 MHz 288 Kb SRAM macro
Author :
Pelella, A.R. ; Pong-Fei Lu ; Chan, Y.H. ; Huott, W.V. ; Bakhru, U. ; Kowalczyk, S. ; Patel, P. ; Rawlins, J. ; Wu, P.T.
Author_Institution :
IBM Corp., Poughkeepsie, NY, USA
Abstract :
High speed level-1 cache applications demand fast single cycle access times and short cycles. Novel circuits that deliver fast access times and self-resetting CMOS (SRCMOS) techniques that deliver fast cycle times are described. Two key elements for fast access times are: fast signal conversion from static CMOS to SRCMOS and fast signal conversion from SRCMOS to static CMOS. These conversions are performed by the input receiver and output driver circuits. A two-stage address decode scheme to minimize gate complexity and a high performance "late select 4-to-1" mux in front of the output drivers are also key elements. A "Sense and Hold Amplifier" (SHA) is used to perform pulse alignment with the asynchronous "late select" signal. The critical redundancy compare path is designed to be as fast as the primary word line decode path in order to minimize any impact on performance. SRCMOS circuitry allows for fast cycle operation without the use of a centrally controlled clocking scheme. Only the receivers are clocked and all subsequent circuits are triggered by pulses generated from preceding stages. Extensive sharing of reset circuitry is employed to minimize the overhead of SRCMOS. The SRAM includes a programmable "Array-Built-In-Self-Test" (ABIST) sub-macro which allows extensive test pattern coverage and access time evaluation at cycle speed.
Keywords :
CMOS memory circuits; SRAM chips; automatic testing; built-in self test; cache storage; cellular arrays; decoding; integrated circuit testing; redundancy; 2 ns; 288 Kbit; 500 MHz; SRAM macro; access time evaluation; critical redundancy compare path; gate complexity; input receiver; level-1 cache applications; output driver; programmable array-built-in-self-test; pulse alignment; reset circuitry; self-resetting CMOS; sense and hold amplifier; signal conversion; single cycle access times; test pattern coverage; two-stage address decode scheme; CMOS technology; Centralized control; Circuit testing; Clocks; Decoding; Driver circuits; Pulse amplifiers; Pulse circuits; Pulse generation; Random access memory;
Conference_Titel :
VLSI Circuits, 1996. Digest of Technical Papers., 1996 Symposium on
Conference_Location :
Honolulu, HI, USA
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-3339-X
DOI :
10.1109/VLSIC.1996.507741