7.

Timing Issues in Circuits

„ Setup and hold time constraints

„ Input timing constraints
„ Clock period analysis
„ Metastability and synchronizer reliability

Jon Turner

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 Edge-Triggered D Flip Flop
„ D flip flop stores value at D
input when clock rises D Q

„ Most widely used storage >C Q′

element for sequential circuits
„ Propagation time is time from setup
C
rising clock to output change hold
D
„ If input changes when clock Q
rises, new value is uncertain min, max propagation delay
» output may oscillate or may remain
at intermediate voltage
(metastability)
„ Timing rules to avoid metastability
» D input must be stable for setup time before rising clock edge
» must remain stable for hold time following rising clock edge 7-2

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Implications of Setup Time Constraints
combinational period
x circuit path
D Q clk
y D Q flip flop prop. delay
>C Q′ x
>C Q′ comb. circuit delay
clock y
source
setup time

„ To avoid setup time violations, require

period ≥ (max FF prop. delay) + (max comb. circuit delay)
+ FF setup time + (max clock skew)
„ CAD tools can check all FF-to-FF paths to verify
» both component delays and wiring delays matter
» accurate estimate requires component locations and
information about routing of wires
7-3

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Implications of Hold Time Constraints
combinational hold time
x circuit path
D Q clk
y D Q ff delay
>C Q′ x
>C Q′ cc delay
clock y
source

„ To avoid setup time violations, require

hold time ≤ (min FF prop. delay)
+ (min comb. circuit delay) – (max clock skew)
„ CAD tools can check all FF-to-FF paths to verify
„ In FGPAs, it is often the case that
» hold time < (min FF prop. delay) – (max clock skew)
so hold time violations cannot occur 7-4

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Input Timing

y D Q
clk
x max setup hold
delay path >C
y,z stable
max delay
min
zD Q min delay
delay path
x stable
clock >C

„ Setup and hold times constrain when inputs to a

circuit can change
» stable period starts at clock – (setup + max delay)
» and lasts until clock + hold – (min delay)
» Common simplification is to hold input stable from
clock – (setup + max delay) until clock
7-5

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Timing Analysis Procedure
1. Check for internal hold time violations
» for every ff-to-ff path, check
(minimum ff prop. delay) + (minimum comb. circuit delay)
> (hold time) + (clock skew) omit skew for paths from
» fix violations by adding delay output to input of same ff.
» no violations possible if hold-time<(min-ff-prop-delay)–skew
2. Determine minimum clock period
» find ff-to-ff path with largest value of
(maximum ff prop. delay) + (maximum comb. circuit delay)
+ (setup time) + (clock skew)
3. Input timing analysis omit skew for paths from
» each input must be stable from output to input of same ff.
(clock_edge) − ((maximum input-to-ff delay) + (setup time))
to ((clock_edge) + (hold time)) − (minimum input-to-ff delay)
4. Output timing analysis
» outputs have potential to change any time from
(clock_edge) + (minimum clock-to-output delay)
to (clock_edge) + (maximum clock-to-output delay) 7-6

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Timing Analysis of Sequential Comparator
„ Timing parameters
» gate delay: 0.25 to 1 ns
» ff setup time: 2 ns
» ff hold time: 1 ns
» ff prop. delay: 0.5-2 ns
» clock skew: 1 ns
„ Internal hold time violation?
» yes - .5 + 4(.25) < 1 + 1
» add inverter pair to feedback
paths from ffs
„ Minimum clock period - 2 + 6×1 + 2 + 1 = 11 ns or 90 MHz
„ Input timing requirements
» A and B must be stable from (clock_edge – 2) – 4×1 until
(clock_edge +1) – 3 ×.25, so from -6 ns to +.25
„ Output timing - outputs can change .5 to 2 ns after clock
7-7

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Clock Period Analysis from Synthesis
=======================================================================
Timing constraint: Default period analysis for Clock 'clk'
Clock period: 4.227ns (frequency: 236.560MHz)
Total number of paths / destination ports: 45 / 5
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Delay: 4.227ns (Levels of Logic = 3)
Source: state_FFd1 (FF)
Destination: cnt_2 (FF) synthesis estimates only
Source Clock: clk rising placement and routing
Destination Clock: clk rising information needed for
accurate analysis
Data Path: state_FFd1 to cnt_2
Gate Net
Cell:in->out fanout Delay Delay Logical Name (Net Name)
---------------------------------------- ------------
FDR:C->Q 9 0.626 1.125 state_FFd1 (state_FFd1)
LUT2:I1->O 1 0.479 0.740 _mux0001<2>20_SW0 (N123)
LUT4_L:I2->LO 1 0.479 0.123 _mux0001<2>24_SW0 (N119)
LUT4:I3->O 1 0.479 0.000 _mux0001<2>43 (_mux0001<2>)
FDS:D 0.176 cnt_2
----------------------------------------
Total 4.227ns (2.239ns logic, 1.988ns route)
(53.0% logic, 47.0% route)

=======================================================================
7-8

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Input Delay Analysis from Synthesis
=========================================================================
Timing constraint: Default OFFSET IN BEFORE for Clock 'clk'
Total number of paths / destination ports: 17 / 12
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Offset: 4.356ns (Levels of Logic = 4)
Source: dIn (PAD)
Destination: cnt_2 (FF)
Destination Clock: clk rising

Data Path: dIn to cnt_2

Gate Net
Cell:in->out fanout Delay Delay Logical Name (Net Name)
---------------------------------------- ------------
IBUF:I->O 7 0.715 1.201 dIn_IBUF (dIn_IBUF)
LUT4:I0->O 1 0.479 0.704 _mux0001<2>33 (_mux0001<2>_map1
LUT4_L:I3->LO 1 0.479 0.123 _mux0001<2>24_SW0 (N119)
LUT4:I3->O 1 0.479 0.000 _mux0001<2>43 (_mux0001<2>)
FDS:D 0.176 cnt_2
----------------------------------------
Total 4.356ns (2.328ns logic, 2.028ns route)
(53.4% logic, 46.6% route)

=========================================================================

7-9

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Combining Circuits
interconnect
Circuit 1 delay Circuit 2
D Q D Q

>C >C

clk
max output max input
delay delay

„ When combining two components, check setup

constraints manually
clock period ≥ (max output delay) + (max input delay)
+ (max inter-connect delay) + skew
„ Note, skew much larger across different
components than within a single component
„ Hold time violations unlikely across components
» inter-chip delays much larger than (hold time)+skew
7-10

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Dealing with Timing Failures
„ To fix hold time errors, add delay
» rarely issue in FPGAs, but can be in ASIC designs
„ To correct setup time failures
» if you can’t increase clock period, must reduce delay
» find long delay paths and modify circuit to reduce
» adjust synthesis/implementation properties
• focus on speed optimization, increase effort level
» study synthesis report to identify worst-case paths
• rewrite VHDL to produce faster circuit
• e.g. replace ripple-carry circuits with carry lookahead
• if need be (and feasible), insert pipeline registers to divide
long combinational paths into smaller parts

7-11

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Metastability
„ Most digital systems have asynchronous inputs
» keyboard input on a computer,
» sensor on a traffic light controller,
» card insertion on an ATM, etc.
„ Asynchronous inputs change at unpredictable times
» so, can change during clock transition, causing
metastability
„ Output of a metastable flip flop can oscillate or remain
at intermediate value
» leads to unpredictable behavior in other flip flops
» metastability usually ends quickly, but no definite time
limit
» so, circuit failures due to metastability are unavoidable
» however, systems can be designed to make failures rare
7-12

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Synchronizers
„ Synchronizers are used to isolate metastable signals until
they are “probably safe”
potentially
metastable
asynchronous signal
input D Q D Q “probably
safe” signal
>C >C
clk

„ If the clock period is long enough, failure probability is small

and expected time between failures is large
MTBF = Mean Time Between Failures ≈ (αT/T0)eT/τ
where T is the clock period, α is the average time between
asynchronous input changes, τ and T0 are parameters of the
flip flop being used
„ If T = 50 ns, α = 1 ms, τ = 1 ns, T0 = 1 ns, MTBF ≈ 8 trillion
years, if T = 10 ns, MTBF becomes 220 seconds! 7-13

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MTBF Chart

1.E+12
τ=T
τ=T00
1.E+11

1.E+10
MTBF (seconds)

1.E+09

1.E+08 1 year

1.E+07
α=1 s 1 ms 1 μs 1 ns
1.E+06

1.E+05
10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60
T/T
T/τ0
7-14

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Things You Should Be Able to Do
„ Define the timing parameters of a flip flop and explain
their significance
» setup and hold times
» min and max propagation delays
„ Defineclock skew, explain where it comes from
„ Determine minimum clock period of a circuit
» and fix setup violations in simple circuits
„ Determine times when circuit inputs must be stable
„ Explain timing analysis section of synthesis report
„ Define metastability and explain significance
„ Estimate MTBF for a synchronizer and explain what to
do if MTBF is unacceptably small
7-15

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