Static Timing Analysis of Different SRAM Controllers

Abstract

Timing-critical path analysis is one of the most significant terms for the VLSI designer. For the formal verification of any kinds of digital chip, static timing analysis (STA) plays a vital role to check the potentiality and viability of the design procedures. This indicates the timing status between setup and holding times required with respect to the active edge of the clock. STA can also be used to identify time sensitive paths, simulate path delays, and assess Register transfer level (RTL) dependability. Four types of Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) controllers in this paper are used to handle with the complexities of digital circuit timing analysis at the logic level. Different STA parameters such as slack, clock skew, data latency, and multiple clock frequencies are investigated here in their node-to-node path analysis for diverse SRAM controllers. Using phase lock loop (ALTPLL), single clock and dual clock are used to get the response of these controllers. For four SRAM controllers, the timing analysis shows that no data violation exists for single and dual clock with 50 MHz and 100 MHz frequencies. Result also shows that the slack for 100MHz is greater than that of 50MHz. Moreover, the clock skew value in our proposed design is lower than in the other three controllers because number of paths, number of states are reduced, and the slack value is higher than in 1st and 2nd controllers. In timing path analysis, slack time determines that the design is working at the desired frequency. Although 100MHz is faster than 50MHz, our proposed SRAM controller meets the timing requirements for 100MHz including the reduction of node to node data delay. Due to this reason, the proposed controller performs well compared to others in terms slack and clock skew.