A 400-MT/s 6.4-GB/s multiprocessor bus interface

Abstract

This paper describes the design of a system bus interface for the 130-nm Itanium® 2 processor that operates at 400 MT/s (1 megatransfer = 1 Mb/s/pin) with a peak bandwidth of 6.4 GB/s. The high-speed operation is achieved by employing source-synchronous transfer with differential strobes. Short flight time is accomplished by double-sided placement of the processors. Preboost and postboost edge-rate control enables fast clock-to-output timing with tight edge-rate range. The built-in input/output (I/O) loopback test feature enables I/O parameters to be tested on die, using a delay-locked loop and interpolator with 21-ps phase-skew error and 15-ps rms jitter. Power modeling methodology facilitates accurate prediction of system performance.