Power minimization of pipeline architecture through 1-cycle error correction and voltage scaling

We present a new 1-cycle timing error correction method, which enables aggressive voltage scaling in a pipelined architecture. The proposed method differs from the state-of-the-art in that the pipeline stage where the timing error occurs can continue to receive input data without halting to avoid data collision. The feature allows the pipeline to avoid recurring clock gating when timing errors happen at multiple stages or timing errors continue to occur at a certain stage. Compared to a state-of-the-art method, the proposed method shows 2-6% energy reduction for a 5-stage pipeline and 7-11% reduction for a 10-stage pipeline. In addition, the proposed logic to propagate clock gating signal is much simpler than that of the previous method [1] by eliminating reverse propagation path of clock gating signal.

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