2002 IEEE International Conference on Computer Design (ICCD'02)
A Circuit-Level Implementation of Fast, Energy-Efficient CMOS Comparators for High-Performance Microprocessors
Freiburg, Germany
September 16-September 18
ISBN: 0-7695-1700-5
Datapath components in modern high performance superscalar processors employ a significant amount of associative addressing logic based on the use of comparators that dissipate energy on a mismatch. These comparators are used to detect a full match, but as mismatches are much more common than full matches in some components of the CPU, considerable energy-inefficiencies occur within the associative logic. We propose the design of two new comparator circuits that predominantly dissipate energy on a match, thus resulting in very significant savings in comparator power dissipation. The proposed designs are evaluated using SPICE simulations of actual VLSI layouts of the comparators in 0.18 micron 6-metal layer process and micro-architectural level statistics.
Citation:
Oguz Ergin, Kanad Ghose, Gurhan Kucuk, Dmitry Ponomarev, "A Circuit-Level Implementation of Fast, Energy-Efficient CMOS Comparators for High-Performance Microprocessors," iccd, pp.118, 2002 IEEE International Conference on Computer Design (ICCD'02), 2002