Depth Cascading Using Pipelining
Using the pipelining approach, depth cascading is
implemented by connecting the required number of
LH540215/25s in series. Within the cascade, the Data
Outputs of each device are connected to the Data Inputs
of the next device. (See Figure 29a.) All devices in the
cascade must be in
the Enhanced Operating Mode
;
thus, their
EMODE
inputs must be grounded.
Successive devices in the cascade are crosscoupled;
they control each other, using a ‘handclasp’ scheme for
crossconnecting their control inputs and their status out-
puts. (See again Figure 29a.) The input side of the first
device, and the output side of the last device, are not
crosscoupled to other devices. Their control/status and
clock pins are connected to the external system.
For the FIFO devices within the cascade, transferring
data from each device to the next device is governed by
a clock. Preferably, the same clock should be used at
every FIFO-to-FIFO data-transfer interface boundary
within the cascade. This ‘Transfer Clock’ may be either
the external Write Clock, or the external Read Clock. If
both of these two clocks are periodic and free-running,
the faster of the two is the obvious choice for the ‘Transfer
Clock.’ Of course, in principle, the ‘Transfer Clock’ may
even be some other, totally-different clock.
The Empty Flag of each device is used to govern
writing into the next device, and the Full Flag of each
device is used to govern reading from the preceding
device. Since the standard Empty Flag EF occurs one
RCLK cycle too early to properly enable/disable the next
device,
the duplicate Empty Flag EF
2
is used instead;
EF
2
is an exact copy of EF, except that it is delayed
by one full RCLK cycle with respect to EF.
Also, since the usual enable signals WEN and REN
have the wrong polarity to function properly in this ‘hand-
clasp’ mode, they are grounded for all devices within the
cascade.
The duplicate but inverted signals WEN
2
and REN
2
are used instead.
EF
2
, WEN
2
, and REN
2
are available only in En-
hanced Operating Mode. They share the same pins
which in IDT-Compatible Operating Mode are used
respectively for RXO, WXI, and RXI. Hence, for pipe-
lined operation, all devices in the cascade must be in
the Enhanced Operating Mode; their EMODE control
inputs must be grounded.
When all of the foregoing conditions have been met in
the interconnection of the pipelined array, then: At each
device-to-device interface boundary within the array, a
data word is transferred from the upstream device to the
downstream device after everytransfer-clock rising edge,
as long as the upstream device is not empty and the
downstream device is not full.
There is one possible anomalous behavior, which can
occur if at any time the device upstream from a FIFO-to-
FIFO boundary (‘device n-1’) becomes totally empty, at
the same time as the downstream device (‘device n’)
becomes totally full. Under these relatively-infrequent
conditions, one extra copy of the last word transferred out
of device n-1, which remains still available at the outputs
of that device, gets introduced into the data stream. The
simple circuit illustrated in Figure 29b avoids introducing
this extra word, and does not slow down the operation of
the pipeline if it is implemented with logic which is suffi-
ciently fast. Table 6 indicates the speed requirements for
this circuit which correspond to the various speed grades
of LH540215/25. If the infrequent introduction of such an
extra word is not of concern for a given cascaded-
LH540215/25 application, the circuit of Figure 29b may
safely be omitted.
Table 6. Required External-Logic Speeds for
Pipelined Depth-Cascading Operation at
Maximum Rate of Speed Grade
SPEED GRADE (CYCLE TIME)
20 ns
25 ns
35 ns
Ta
≤
8 ns
≤
15 ns
≤
10 ns
≤
19 ns
≤
15 ns
≤
28 ns
Tb
NOTES:
1.
Ta is the setup time for the signal ‘FF (DEVICE n),’ including the
delay of the assertive-LOW AND gate, with respect to the clock.
2.
Tb is the clock-to-output time for the signal ‘WEN
(DEVICE n),’
including the delay of the assertive-HIGH AND gate.
Two PLDs (Programmable Logic Devices) suffice to
implement the circuit of Figure 29b ten times, which
allows for the cascading of LH540215/25s eleven deep.
The choice of a GAL20RA10B-10 PLD to implement the
flipflop and the two AND gates at its inputs, and a
GAL22V10C-5 PLD to implement the simple AND gate
which follows the flipflop, provides a sufficiently fast circuit
to allow a cascade of LH540215/25-20 devices (the fast-
est speed grade presently offered by Sharp) to operate
with no speed degradation. Designers experienced in
using PLDs may recognize other implementations.
BOLD ITALIC = Enhanced Operating Mode
LH540215/25
512 x 18/1024 x 18 Synchronous FIFO
42