Clock gating interview questions

One of the most important and frequently asked topics in interviews is clock gating and clock gating checks. We have a collection of blog-posts related to this topic which can help you master clock gating. You can go through following links to add to your existing knowledge of clock gating:

  • Clock gating checksDiscusses different clock gating structures used and associated timing checks related to these
  • Clock gating checks at a muxDiscusses clock gating checks that should be applied in case one of the inputs of mux has a clock signal connected to it, which is the most common clock gating check in today's designs


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7 comments:

  1. Who will add clock gating cells in the design rtl engineer or synthesis engineer

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    1. Hi Rama

      Clock gating cells are added both during RTL design as well as during synthesis. RTL designer may add clock gating cells for clock control and division as well as for power saving. On the other hand, those added during synthesis are purely for power saving.

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  2. How to find wich path is using clock gates

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    1. Every design element (logic gate) in clock path which has more than two pins is a candidate clock gate. By more than two pins, we mean non-buffer non-inverter cells in clock path.

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  3. Why AND-Latch based ICG is reliable when driving pos edge triggered ff only ?

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    1. I dont believe this to be a true statement, can you provide any references?

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