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Abstract

A system and method for transmitting data, using a source synchronous clocking scheme, over a communication (or data) link. A source synchronous driver (SSD) receives a micropacket of parallel data and serializes this data for transfer over the communication link. The serial data is transferred onto the communication link at a rate four times as fast as the parallel data is received by the SSD. A pair of source synchronous clocks are also transmitted across the communication link along with the serial data. The pair of clocks are the true complement of one another. A source synchronous receiver (SSR) receives the serial data and latches it into a first set of registers using the source synchronous clocks. The serial data is then latched into a second set of registers in parallel. The second set of registers are referred to as 'ping-pong' registers. The ping-pong registers store the deserialized data. In parallel, a handshake signal, which is synchronized to the clock on the receiving end of the communication link indicates that there is a stream of n contiguous data words being received by the SSR. The ping pong registers guarantee that the deserialized data is available (valid) for two clock cycles. This provides a sufficient window to account for the synchronizer uncertainty on the handshake signal, while introducing minimum latency.

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First Claim