The state justification problem is the decision problem of finding a
sequence of states and input values that satisfy an output condition
for a given state machine or RTL description. In such problems, there
always exist optimal state sequences that require a minimum number of
clock cycles to reach the desired state.
As Boolean decision problems, state justification problems can be
expressed as satisfiability problems (SAT) by using the time-frame
expansion algorithm. Boolean SAT or BDD-based techniques are bit-level
decision procedures commonly used by industrial hardware verification
tools. Unfortunately, these approaches are not efficient enough,
because they do not inherit the word-level information from the RTL
design. Recent approaches to the SAT problem are addressed to RTL
designs containing instances of both, word-level arithmetic blocks for
data flow, and bit-level Boolean logic for control flow. These
approaches transform the whole SAT problem for an RTL description into
a mixed integer linear program (MILP).
This paper presents a new approach that finds in a single step, the
optimum input sequence for a given RTL description to reach a desired
state. This is accomplished by applying a novel time-frame expansion
method that guarantees an optimal solution and avoids performing
time-frame expansions iteratively.
Experimental results will demonstrate that the proposed methodology
can solve any state justification problem in one step for complex
FSMs. The main application of this procedure is the test pattern
generation, where the main problem is to reduce the length of test
sequences that verifies a microcircuit.
In this paper, we propose a high performance direct bootstrapped CMOS latched driver circuit (J-driver). It is a 28% faster and occupies a 58% less active area as compared to a counterpart circuit (L-driver) using indirect bootstrap technique. In addition, our driver J-driver reduces the power consumption by a 2% in driving capacitive loads from 1pF to 6pF. The challenge in designing this latched driver is to appropriately trade-off performance against the active area.
Real time image processing is a key issue in nowadays multimedia applications. Image filtering and video coding are two basic applications in image processing. Their algorithms are computationally expensive due to both, the number of points of each frame to be processed, and the calculation complexity per point. The VLSI implementation of these algorithms leads to special architectures that are based on systolic arrays, and whose implementation is greedy in silicon area. In this paper, we propose a configurable and bidimensional pipelined VLSI architecture that supports mathematical morphology operations and the block matching algorithm. Remarkable advantages include low power consumption, and a regular and compact design (in terms of core active area) versus the traditional systolic architecture. The architecture is adequate for both morphological image filtering and video compression, depending on the hardware resources of the processing elements. The main advantage of this bidimensional pipeline architecture is the area saving compared with the systolic array implementation. Total area saving was presented in terms of the number of bits of the FIFO memories that can be eliminated. The proposed architecture was verified at high level in C++, at RTL level using Verilog and at C++/RTL level using DEMETER. Required cycle times was measured for a real time morphological filter per dilation/erosion operation, as a function of the incoming resolution. Physical layouts were obtained for the basic slice of the processing element and for the systolic array using the technology of 0,35 microns CMOS from AMS.
A new transient macromodel for the cells used in DCFL GaAs and CMOS digital design is introduced in this paper. The numerical solution determines accurate propagation delay times. The macromodel is based on the differential equation for the output voltage in terms of currents and capacitances. An straightforward treatment of the differential equation for an inverter in DCFL GaAs and CMOS has been obtained. It could be resolved numerically by a 4th order Runge Kutta method. Good agreement is obtained between the HSPICE simulation and the computation of the propagation delays for DCFL GaAs and CMOS basic gates: INV, NOR, OR and NAND. There is no error between HSPICE and our computation of propagation delay time for the high to low (tphl) and low to high (tplh) transitions. The propagation delay times for two types of transition were measured and compared with HSPICE. The results demonstrate that our approach matches with HSPICE with no error. The numerical method was programmed in C language. In addition, computation time analysis is provided and numerical solution is several orders of magnitude faster than HSPICE. Work is in progress to obtain the macromodel of a standard cell library for digital application both for a 0.6 microns E/D GaAs process (H-GaAsIV) from Vitesse Semiconductor and for a 0.18 microns logic/mixed-signal CMOS process (1P6M) from TSMC Corp.
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