Key technologies for 500-MHz VLSI system ULTIMATE

Technologies needed for constructing ULTIMATE, including an 8-ps-resolution timing generator, a formatter with a real-time waveform control function, a 2.5-ps-resolution standard comparator, and a miniaturized 3-GHz 59-pole channel selector are described. Almost all the pin-electronics hardware has been integrated on twelve kinds of LSIs, eight of which are 2.5 K-gate and 400-gate ultrahigh-speed bipolar gate arrays. ULTIMATE realizes +or-55-ps overall timing accuracy by the timing calibration method which combines a standard comparator-based method and a TDR (time-domain reflectometry)-based method. >