Globally updated mesochronous design style (GUM-design-style)

In large-scale and high-speed digital systems, global synchronization has frequently been used to protect clocked I/O from data failure do to metastability. Synchronous design style is widely used, easy to grasp and to implement, also well supported by logic synthesis tools. There are many drawbacks with global synchronization. Most important is the relationship between physical size and maximum clock frequency, which will approach its limit as clock frequency and system size increase simultaneously. The purpose of this proposed Globally Updated Mesochronous design style (GUM-design-style) is to overcome those by identifying and allowing all single and bidirectional high-speed signal links needed, still retaining the simplicity uncomplicated implementation and tool support. In this paper GUM-design-style is described, analysed and demonstrated. Experimental results from a large-scale high-speed system using three 0.8 µm BiCMOS chips are given. GUM-design-style is scaleable and suitable for future System on Chip (SoC) both on and between chips.