Implementing Tile-based Chip Multiprocessors with GALS Clocking Styles

This paper investigates implementation techniques for tile-based chip multiprocessors with Globally Asynchronous Locally Synchronous (GALS) clocking styles. These architectures can simplify the physical design flow since they allow focusing on a single processor when designing an entire chip. However, they also introduce challenges to maintain system robustness and scalability. We propose a physical design flow for these architectures, investigate timing issues for robust implementations, and propose methods to take full advantage of their potential scalability. As a design example, we present data from a recently implemented single-chip 6 x 6 tile-based GALS processing array.