Theory of Generalized Branch and Combine Clock Networks

Abstract

In a recent development a new clock distribution scheme, called Branch-and-Combine or BaC, has been introduced. The scheme is the first to guarantee constant skew bound regardless of network size. In this paper we generalize and extend the work on BaC networks. We establish some interesting results on clocking paths, node input sequences, node inputs' relative timing, network stability, and skew bound. Furthermore, this study establishes an upper bound on maximum clocking rates for BaC networks which is about double that predicted by earlier studies.