Measurement of power supply noise tolerance of self-timed processor

Abstract

We have compared the power supply noise tolerance of a synchronous processor and a self-timed processor fabricated using 0.18µm CMOS. We have designed the self-timed processor using the same RTL as the synchronous processor, and translated it into a netlist with DCVSL circuits and completion logic trees. We have demonstrated the synchronous processor shows an error rate of 9.3% for the worst power supply noise in case of 10% timing margin design. On the other hand, the self-timed processor shows 40% speed degradation, but no error, for the same power supply noise.