Apart from the specification of the function itself, such as multiply, a block that performs a function in some number of clock cycles can be characterised using the following metrics:
A unit whose initiation interval is one is said to be `fully pipelined'.
In today's ASIC and FPGA technology, combinational add and subtract of up to 32-bit words is typical. But RAM read, multiply and divide are usually allocated at least one pipeline cycle, with larger multiplies and all divides being two or more.
For 64-bit word widths, floating point or RAMs larger than L1 size (e.g. 32 KByte), two or more cycle latency is common, but with an initiation interval of one (ii=1).
22: (C) 2008-18, DJ Greaves, University of Cambridge, Computer Laboratory. |