Static analysis of asynchronous clock domain crossings

Clock domain crossing (CDC) signals pose unique and challenging issues in complex designs with multiple asynchronous clocks running at frequencies as high as multiple giga hertz. Designers can no longer rely on ad hoc approaches to CDC analysis. This paper describes a methodical approach for static analysis of structural issues in asynchronous CDCs. The illustrated approach can be integrated easily in standard static timing analysis (STA) flows of any design house. The methodology was successfully deployed on a 32 nm accelerated processing unit (APU) design, and a case study of the same is included in this paper.