Multi-threshold complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (mtcmos) bus circuit and method for reducing bus power consumption via pulsed standby switching

Abstract

A multi-threshold complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (MTCMO) bus circuit reduces bus power consumption via a reduced circuit leakage standby and pulsed control of standby mode so that the advantages of MTCMOS repeater design are realized in dynamic operation. A pulse generator pulses the high-threshold voltage power supply rail standby switching devices in response to changes detected at the bus circuit inputs. The delay penalty associated with leaving the standby mode is overcome by reducing cross-talk induced delay via a cross-talk noise minimization encoding and decoding scheme. A subgroup of bus wires is encoded and decoded, simplifying the encoding, decoding and change detection logic and results in the bus subgroup being taken out of standby mode only when changes occur in one or more of the subgroup inputs, further reducing the power consumption of the overall bus circuit.