Area-efficient one-cycle correction scheme for timing errors in flip-flop based pipelines

Abstract

We propose a new timing error correction scheme for area-efficient design of flip-flop based pipeline. Key features in the proposed scheme are 1) one-cycle error correction using a new local stalling scheme and 2) selective replacement of the error detection and correction flip-flops in critical paths only. A 32-bit MIPS testchip in a 65 nm CMOS technology has been implemented as a testbed. By employing the proposed scheme in the flop-flop based pipeline, the area overhead due to the retiming process (∼21%) in the previous two-phase transparent latch based scheme can be eliminated. In addition, substantial area saving (16%) can be achieved compared to the state-of-the-art flip-flop based scheme thanks to the selective replacement of the error detection and correction flip-flops.