SMI: SLACK MEASUREMENT INSERTION FOR ONLINE TIMING MONITORING IN FPGAS

Shadow registers, driven by a variable-phase clock, can be used to extract useful timing information from a circuit dur-ing operation. This paper presents Slack Measurement In-sertion (SMI), an automated tool flow for inserting shadow registers into an FPGA design to enable measurement of timing slack. The flow provides a parameterised level of cir-cuit coverage and results in minimal timing and area over-heads. We demonstrate the process through its application to three complex benchmark designs. 1