Timing Margin: Slack Calculation and Sign Convention
Static timing analysis tools rely on slack calculations to determine if a synchronous digital design can operate safely at a target clock frequency.
A synchronous circuit contains three distinct combinational logic paths between a source flip-flop and a destination flip-flop. The clock period T_period is 10 ns. Both flip-flops share identical characteristics with a clock-to-Q delay t_pcq of 1 ns and a setup time t_setup of 1 ns. The combinational delays t_comb for Path 1, Path 2, and Path 3 are 4 ns, 8 ns, and 11 ns respectively.
Calculate the setup slack for each path and determine the timing margin of the system. Identify which paths meet timing requirements and which represent violations.
Constraints
- Clock skew and jitter are assumed to be exactly zero.
- All delays are strictly deterministic and represent maximum delay corners.
- Routing delays are absorbed into the given
t_combvalues.
Topics
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