Automatic Conversion from Flip-flop to 3-phase Latch-based Designs

Latch-based designs have many benefits over their flip-flop based counterparts but have limited use partially because most RTL specifications are flop-centric and automatic conversion of FF to latch-based designs is challenging. Conventional conversion algorithms target master-slave latch-based designs with two non-overlapping clocks. This paper presents a novel automated design flow that converts flip-flop to 3-phase latch-based designs. The resulting circuits have the same performance as the master-slave based designs but require significantly less latches. Our experimental results demonstrate the potential for savings in the number of latches (21.3%), area (5.8%), and power (16.3%) on a variety of ISCAS, CEP, and CPU benchmark circuits, compared to the master-slave conversions.