论文标题

VirtualSync+:通过虚拟同步的定时优化

VirtualSync+: Timing Optimization with Virtual Synchronization

论文作者

Zhang, Grace Li, Li, Bing, Huang, Xing, Yin, Xunzhao, Zhuo, Cheng, Hashimoto, Masanori, Schlichtmann, Ulf

论文摘要

在数字电路设计中,诸如触发器之类的顺序组件用于同步信号传播。逻辑计算在触发器阶段对齐并因此分离。尽管这种完全同步的样式可以大大降低设计工作,但它可能会对电路性能产生负面影响,因为顺序组件只能将延迟引入信号传播,但永远不会加速它们。在本文中,我们提出了一个新的定时模型VirtualSync+,其中允许信号(特别是沿临界路径的信号)通过几个无触发器的顺序阶段传播。在优化电路的边界上仍然满足时间限制,以保持与现有设计的一致接口。通过删除触发器在临界路径上的触发器的时钟到Q延迟和设置时间要求,可以将电路的性能甚至超出传统顺序设计的极限。此外,我们通过使用商业设计工具(例如Synopsys的设计编译器)进行微调来进一步增强了VirtualSync+的优化,以实现更准确的结果。实验结果表明,与极端重新缩小和大小后相比,电路性能最多可提高4%(平均1.5%),而面积的增加仍然可以忽略不计。这种计时性能超出了传统顺序设计的极限。它还表明,与重新限制和尺寸后的那些相比,具有VirtualSync+的电路可以分别在相同的面积成本或在同一时钟期间的面积成本或较小的面积成本下实现更好的定时性能。

In digital circuit designs, sequential components such as flip-flops are used to synchronize signal propagations. Logic computations are aligned at and thus isolated by flip-flop stages. Although this fully synchronous style can reduce design efforts significantly, it may affect circuit performance negatively, because sequential components can only introduce delays into signal propagations but never accelerate them. In this paper, we propose a new timing model, VirtualSync+, in which signals, specially those along critical paths, are allowed to propagate through several sequential stages without flip-flops. Timing constraints are still satisfied at the boundary of the optimized circuit to maintain a consistent interface with existing designs. By removing clock-to-q delays and setup time requirements of flip-flops on critical paths, the performance of a circuit can be pushed even beyond the limit of traditional sequential designs. In addition, we further enhance the optimization with VirtualSync+ by fine-tuning with commercial design tools, e.g., Design Compiler from Synopsys, to achieve more accurate result. Experimental results demonstrate that circuit performance can be improved by up to 4% (average 1.5%) compared with that after extreme retiming and sizing, while the increase of area is still negligible. This timing performance is enhanced beyond the limit of traditional sequential designs. It also demonstrates that compared with those after retiming and sizing, the circuits with VirtualSync+ can achieve better timing performance under the same area cost or smaller area cost under the same clock period, respectively.

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