Methods for static checking of asynchronous clock domain crossings

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9536024-B2
Application number	US-201514734877-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 9, 2015
Priority date	Dec 5, 2013
Publication date	Jan 3, 2017
Grant date	Jan 3, 2017

Abstract

A circuit design checker receives a circuit design. The circuit design can include a first set of one or more logic components in a first clock domain and a second set of one or more logic components in a second clock domain. The clock domain checker identifies a first subset of the second set of one or more logic components that receive one or more asynchronous clock domain crossings. The circuit design is traversed to determine whether a subset of the one or more asynchronous clock domain crossings does not pass through a signal having an attribute indicating that the signal is intended to be part of the one or more asynchronous clock domain crossings. If such a crossing exists, an error is indicated for the circuit design.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for checking circuit designs with asynchronous clock domain crossings, the method comprising:
receiving a circuit design, the circuit design including a first set of one or more logic components in a first clock domain and a second set of one or more logic components in a second clock domain;
identifying, by one or more processors, a first subset of the second set of one or more logic components that receive one or more asynchronous clock domain crossings;
traversing, by the one or more processors, at least a portion of the circuit design to determine whether a subset of the one or more asynchronous clock domain crossings does not pass through a signal having an attribute indicating that the signal is intended to be part of the one or more asynchronous clock domain crossings; and
indicating an error for the circuit design in response to determining that the subset of the one or more asynchronous clock domain crossings has at least one member.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
indicating an error for the circuit design in response to determining that an asynchronous clock domain crossing has an attribute indicating that the asynchronous clock domain crossing is a control crossing and that the asynchronous clock domain crossing is not synchronized to control metastability.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein determining that the asynchronous clock domain crossing is not synchronized includes determining that the asynchronous clock domain crossing is not followed by at least two consecutive flip-flops or latch pairs in the second clock domain.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
indicating an error for the circuit design in response to determining that an asynchronous clock domain crossing has an attribute indicating that the asynchronous clock domain crossing is a control crossing and that the asynchronous clock domain crossing includes a fanout to multiple sinks in the second clock domain.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
indicating an error for the circuit design in response to determining that an asynchronous clock domain crossing has an attribute indicating that the asynchronous clock domain crossing is a point-to-point crossing and that the asynchronous clock domain crossing passes through combinational logic that combines paths from multiple transmit logic components.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
indicating an error for the circuit design in response to determining that an asynchronous clock domain crossing has an attribute indicating that the asynchronous clock domain crossing is a point-to-point crossing and that the asynchronous clock domain crossing passes through combinational logic that reconverges paths that contain asynchronous transitions.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
indicating an error for the circuit design in response to determining that an asynchronous clock domain crossing to an asynchronous reset input of a logic component does not pass through a signal having an attribute indicating that the signal is intended to be part of an asynchronous clock domain crossing to an asynchronous reset input of the logic component.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Drasny Gabor
• Meil Gavin B

Classifications

• G06F2111/04

  Constraint-based CAD · CPC title

• G06F30/30

  Circuit design · CPC title

• G06F30/396

  Clock trees · CPC title

• G06F2119/12

  Timing analysis or timing optimisation · CPC title

• G06F30/35

  Delay-insensitive circuit design, e.g. asynchronous or self-timed · CPC title