Circuits and methods for reducing minimum supply for register file cells
View Patent ↗A register file employing a shared supply structure to improve the minimum supply voltage.
1. A chip, comprising:
a plurality of cells, each having separate read and write access, the plurality of cells being supplied through a common supply structure to droop the voltage supplied to the cells during a write operation, wherein the common supply structure, relative to the number of cells in the plurality, is to naturally droop the supplied voltage when the write operation is enabled, and wherein the plurality of cells with sizing to be such that the droop is sufficiently large for a write operation for a selected cell but sufficiently short in duration to avoid data loss in non written-to cells.
2. The chip of claim 1 , in which the common supply structure is controlled to provide a tailored virtual supply voltage to the plurality of cells during a write operation.
3. The chip of claim 1 , in which the common supply structure comprises one or more programmable transistors.
4. The chip of claim 3 , in which the one or more programmable transistors are fusably coupled to a common node supplying the plurality of cells.
5. The chip of claim 3 , in which the one or more common supply structure transistors are PMOS transistors.
6. The chip of claim 1 , in which the plurality of cells comprises eight to sixteen cells.
7. The chip of claim 6 , in which the write operation is enabled by turning on pass gate transistors for each cell to be written.
8. A circuit, comprising:
a group of register file cells coupled to receive a shared virtual supply through a shared supply device, the shared virtual supply to droop during a write operation to reduce contention between pass and pull-up transistors in the register file cells;
the pass transistors in the register file cells being coupled to a word line having an active write mode state, wherein the shared virtual supply is to return to a normal, non write operation level, before the word line comes out of the active write mode state.
9. The circuit of claim 8 , in which the shared supply device comprises one or more programmable devices.
10. The circuit of claim 8 , in which the shared supply device is pulsed to generate the droop.
11. The circuit of claim 8 , in which the shared supply device is coupled to always be on during operation.
12. The circuit of claim 8 , in which the group of register file cells comprises eight to sixteen register file cells.
13. The circuit of claim 8 , in which the group of register file cells is sufficiently small so that the capacitance from the register file cells is small enough to enable the droop.