Clocking arbitrarily large computing structures under constant skew bound

A scheme for global synchronization of arbitrarily large computing structures such that clock skew between any two communicating cells is bounded above by a constant is described. The scheme utilizes clock nodes that perform simple processing on clock signals to maintain a constant skew bound irrespective of the size of the computing structure. Among the salient features of the scheme is the interdependence between network topology, skew upper bound, and maximum clocking rate achievable. A 2-D mesh framework is used to present the concepts, introduce three network designs, and to prove some basic results. For each network the (constant) upper bound on clock skew between any two communicating processors, is established, and its independence of network size is shown. Simulations were carried out to verify correctness and to check the workability of the scheme. A 4×4 network was built and successfully tested for stability. Such issues as node design, clocking of nonplanar structures such as hypercubes, and the concept of fuse programmed clock networks are addressed