Tesla, Inc.
Clock sprinklers for a system on a chip

Abstract:

A System-on-a-Chip includes a plurality of processing systems and channel circuitry servicing the plurality of processing systems. The channel circuitry includes a clock sprinkler circuit, a clock source, first direction data path circuitry and second direction data path circuitry. A clock sprinkler is a clock signal that propagates in a first direction only, from a source to all destinations. The first direction data path circuitry includes a plurality of first direction data flip flops and first direction combinational logic that service data flow in the first direction. The second direction data path circuitry includes a plurality of second direction data flip flops and second direction combinational logic that service data flow in the second direction. Clock/data skew in a second direction is greater than clock/data skew in a first direction, the first direction data flip flops are located based upon the clock/data skew in the first direction and the second direction data flip flops are located based upon the clock/data skew in the second direction.