A method of distributed controller design for RTL circuits

This paper describes a design or redesign technique to reduce the control path delay and thus improve the performance of an RTL circuit. The basic idea is to replace an existing centralized controller of an RTL circuit with a distributed controller structure which is made up of multiple local controllers. By placing local controllers close to the datapath resources they control reduces the control wire length which in turn increases the circuit performance, especially at higher frequencies where interconnect delays are dominant. The approach begins with a datapath partitioning into distinct functional blocks, local controller extraction algorithm, followed by hierarchical floor planning. Two local controller styles are presented, the communicating and the and non-communicating local controller, respectively.