Ac technique for eliminating phase ambiguity in clocking signals

Abstract

A method involving: distributing two clock signals over a clock signal distribution system; in each of a plurality local clocking regions located along the signal distribution system, detecting the two clock signals and generating therefrom a local clock signal for that local clocking region, wherein the generated local clock signals for at least some of the plurality of local clocking regions are in a first group all of which are aligned in phase with each other and the generated local clock signals for the remainder of the plurality of local clocking regions are in a second group all of which are aligned in phase with each other, and wherein the phase of the first group is out of phase with the phase of the second group by a predetermined amount; and bringing all of the clock signals for the plurality of local clocking regions into phase alignment so that the phase of the first group is in phase with the phase of the second group.