A single-rail re-implementation of a DCC error detector using a generic standard-cell library

We present a fully asynchronous implementation of a DCC Error Detector. The circuit uses 4-phase handshake signaling and single-rail data encoding, and has been realized using standard cells from a generic cell library. The circuit is obtained by fully automatic translation from a high-level (Tangram) description, using handshake circuits as intermediate architecture. In comparison with a previous double-rail implementation the fabricated IC is 40% smaller (core area), three times faster, and consumes only a quarter of the power. Switching between two power supplies is described as a technique to reduce power dissipation even further. A comparative evaluation also includes an improved double-rail implementation and two synchronous circuits.