[Back]

T. Polzer, T. Handl, A. Steininger:
"A Metastability-Free Multi-synchronous Communication Scheme for SoCs";
Talk: SSS 2009 (Symposium on Stabilization, Safety, and Security of Distributed Systems), Lyon, France; 2009-11-03 - 2009-11-06; in: "Stabilization, Safety, and Security of Distribiuted Systems", Springer, 5873/2009 (2009), ISBN: 978-3642051173; 578 - 592.

We propose a communication scheme for GALS systems with independent but approximately synchronized clock sources, which guarantees high-speed metastability-free communication between any two peers via bounded-size FIFO buffers. The proposed approach can be used atop of any multi-synchronous clocking system that guarantees a synchronization precision in the order of several clock cycles, like our fault-tolerant DARTS clocks. We determine detailed formulas for the required communication buffer size, and prove that this choice indeed guarantees metastability-free communication between correct peers, at maximum clock speed. We also describe a fast and efficient implementation of our scheme, and calculate the required buffer size for a sample test scenario. Experimental results confirm that the size lower bounds provided by our formulas are tight in this setting.

Metastability, SoCs, VLSI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-05118-0

Project Head Andreas Steininger:
Verteilte Algorithmen für robuste Takt-Synchronisation