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Why Reset?: Advantages

A reset is used to initialize a hardware design or force an ASIC into a known state for simulation. There are two types of resets: synchronous and asynchronous. [1] Synchronous resets only affect flip-flops on the active clock edge, while asynchronous resets affect flip-flops regardless of the clock. [2] Synchronous resets have smaller logic but tighter timing constraints, while asynchronous resets have looser timing but can cause metastability. [3] An ideal approach combines the asynchronous assertion for speed and synchronous deassertion for reliability.

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Amena Farhat
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89 views

Why Reset?: Advantages

A reset is used to initialize a hardware design or force an ASIC into a known state for simulation. There are two types of resets: synchronous and asynchronous. [1] Synchronous resets only affect flip-flops on the active clock edge, while asynchronous resets affect flip-flops regardless of the clock. [2] Synchronous resets have smaller logic but tighter timing constraints, while asynchronous resets have looser timing but can cause metastability. [3] An ideal approach combines the asynchronous assertion for speed and synchronous deassertion for reliability.

Uploaded by

Amena Farhat
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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why Reset?

A Reset is required to initialize a hardware design for system operation and


to force an ASIC into a known state for simulation.

A reset simply changes the state of the device/design/ASIC to a


user/designer defined state. There are two types of reset, what are they?
As you can guess them, they are Synchronous reset and Asynchronous
reset.

Synchronous Reset

A synchronous reset signal will only affect or reset the state of the flip-flop
on the active edge of the clock. The reset signal is applied as is any other
input to the state machine.

Advantages:

 The advantage to this type of topology is that the reset presented to


all functional flip-flops is fully synchronous to the clock and will always
meet the reset recovery time.
 Synchronous reset logic will synthesize to smaller flip-flops,
particularly if the reset is gated with the logic generating the d-input.
But in such a case, the combinational logic gate count grows, so the
overall gate count savings may not be that significant.
 Synchronous resets provide some filtering for the reset signal such
that it is not effected by glitches, unless they occur right at the clock
edge. A synchronous reset is recommended for some types of
designs where the reset is generated by a set of internal conditions.
As the clock will filter the logic equation glitches between clock
edges.

Disadvantages:

 The problem in this topology is with reset assertion. If the reset signal
is not long enough to be captured at active clock edge (or the clock
may be slow to capture the reset signal), it will result in failure of
assertion. In such case the design needs a pulse stretcher to
guarantee that a reset pulse is wide enough to be present during the
active clock edge.
 Another problem with synchronous resets is that the logic synthesis
cannot easily distinguish the reset signal from any other data signal.
So proper care has to be taken with logic synthesis, else the reset
signal may take the fastest path to the flip-flop input there by making
worst case timing hard to meet.
 In some power saving designs the clocked is gated. In such designed
only asynchronous reset will work.
 Faster designs that are demanding low data path timing, can not
afford to have extra gates and additional net delays in the data path
due to logic inserted to handle synchronous resets.

Asynchronous Reset

An asynchronous reset will affect or reset the state of the flip-flop


asynchronously i.e. no matter what the clock signal is. This is considered
as high priority signal and system reset happens as soon as the reset
assertion is detected.

Advantages:

 High speeds can be achieved, as the data path is independent of


reset signal.
 Another advantage favoring asynchronous resets is that the circuit
can be reset with or without a clock present.
 As in synchronous reset, no work around is required for logic
synthesis.

Disadvantages:

 The problem with this type of reset occurs at logic de-assertion rather
than at assertion like in synchronous circuits. If the asynchronous
reset is released (reset release or reset removal) at or near the active
clock edge of a flip-flop, the output of the flip-flop could go
metastable.
 Spurious resets can happen due to reset signal glitches.
Conclusion

Both types of resets have positives and negatives and none of them assure
fail-proof design. So there is something called "Asynchronous assertion
and Synchronous de-assertion" reset which can be used for best results.

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