Hi there! I hope this isn't too trivial: I'm having a digital system with a finite state machine and a few other modules which send a control signal to the FSM. Do you think it is possible to use only clock and only posedge Flip Flops in such a design? I can't manage it without the inverted clock so that the control signals change at half the clock signal. But is there a way to avoid this without violating setup and hold times?
Cheers, Henning
I'm not completely sure, but I would say that today 90% of all clocked designs are working with only one clock using only one edge.
What might scare you is your belief that the new state arrives at the input of FlipFlops before the clock edge has "gone through", right?
Indeed, that's a problem. But first it is to say that it takes some time until the new state arrives. Secondly, clocked FlipFlops are built so that they have a very narrow time margin for "opening". This also requires more or less fast clock edges. Thirdly, chip designers try to keep the clock skew at a minimum. That is, all FlipFlops on the chip shall receive their clock more or less at the same time. FPGAs (and ordinary chips as well) have special clock distribution networks for this purpose.
To conclude: If you are working on an FPGA/CPLD design, you don't need to worry about this issue and you can safely go with one clock and one edge. The only thing you have to ensure is that you force the clock signal to be routed via a clock distribution network.
Regards, Mario
You can write your code using both the rising and falling edges of the clock. All you need is to select a device(FPGA)that accomodates the clock frequency and meets the timing constraints. Using timing constraints will help you to implement(write) the VHDL code such as not to violate setup and hold times(in Xilinx ISE is easy to do).
Regards,
DanR
I don't worry, and have been happy for a long time. Having low-skew global nets is the upside of using FPGA's.
In cases where the falling edge seems to be needed to generate narrower pulses, you can still be happy by using the on-chip PLL/DLL to make and distribute a 2x clock.
-- Mike Treseler
Henning,
I am assuming that the finite state machine and the "few other modules" are all in the FPGA. It is very possible to do what you ask about, and it is done day in and day out. As Peter Alfke said earlier, FPGAs are designed to have the clock to out time be longer than the hold time, assuming the signal propagated from Q to D input instantaneously. The only thing you have to worry about is the sum of clock to Q time, routing time, setup time and clock skew to be less than the clock period. That is what constraints are for -- to tell the place and route tool to meet that timing and to quantify it for you.
Now let's assume that you do use the opposite edge, i.e., falling edge, of the clock. Also assume that you are not using a PLL or DLL. If the clock is not guaranteed to be perfectly symmetrical, then you must do additional analysis to determine what the high and low times are. You now need to factor this timing in, using additional constraints, to determine just how much time the tool should allow for the signal to make it to the opposite edge, i.e., the rising edge of the flip flop. This complicates timing and constraints, which detracts from the real task - to get a design working efficiently in a minimal amount of time. There are reasons to use opposite edges, but what you described above is not one of them.
What you have described above is a synchronous design with one clock domain. Once you master a one clock design, you will be ready to move on to multiple clock designs where circuitry can be grouped into clock domains. Then you will have to learn how circuitry in one clock domain can talk reliably to circuitry in another clock domain. There are special rules to achieve this with great reliability, and it all comes under the heading of synchronous design. From my experience, only a small percentage of companies have taken the time and resources to document lessons learned (dating back to the
1970s) and generate design guides that cover this particular subject. These companies covet their design guides and expect their engineers to use it because they know it gives them a competitive edge. There are books, though, that cover this topic. From my experience, the companies that have not taken the time to document and generate design guides are also not reading these books, because I see a fair amount of asynchronous design usage, too.Good luck to you.
Simon Ramirez, Consultant Synchronous Design, Inc. Oviedo, FL USA
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