Complete Timing Budget: Distributing t_comb Across Multiple Logic Stages
Logic budgeting determines how RTL engineers size combinational blocks to meet strict clock period requirements before physical implementation.
A synchronous pipeline path consists of three cascaded combinational logic stages between two flip-flops. Stage A has a logic depth of 3 gates, Stage B has a depth of 5 gates, and Stage C has a depth of 2 gates. Every gate in the standard cell library has a fixed delay of 2 time units. The total combinational delay budget t_comb_budget for this path is 20 time units.
Calculate the total path delay and determine the timing slack. Identify which logic stages are the most critical and evaluate the impact of adding additional logic depth to any stage.
Constraints
- Setup time
t_setupand clock-to-qt_cqare considered zero for this isolated combinational analysis. - All gates have an identical delay of 2 time units.
- The total budget
t_comb_budgetis exactly 20 time units.
Topics
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