electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

and especially

synchronous Synchronization is the coordination of events to operate a system in unison. For example, the conductor of an orchestra keeps the orchestra synchronized or ''in time''. Systems that operate with all parts in synchrony are said to be synchronou ...

digital circuits, a clock signal (historically also known as ''logic beat'') oscillates between a high and a low state and is used like a

metronome A metronome, from ancient Greek μέτρον (''métron'', "measure") and νομός (nomós, "custom", "melody") is a device that produces an audible click or other sound at a regular interval that can be set by the user, typically in beats pe ...

to coordinate actions of digital circuits. A clock

signal In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The '' IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing' ...

is produced by a

clock generator A clock generator is an electronic oscillator that produces a clock signal for use in synchronizing a circuit's operation. The signal can range from a simple symmetrical square wave to more complex arrangements. The basic parts that all clock ge ...

. Although more complex arrangements are used, the most common clock signal is in the form of a square wave with a 50% duty cycle, usually with a fixed, constant frequency. Circuits using the clock signal for synchronization may become active at either the rising edge, falling edge, or, in the case of double data rate, both in the rising and in the falling edges of the clock cycle.

Digital circuits

Most integrated circuits (ICs) of sufficient complexity use a clock signal in order to synchronize different parts of the circuit, cycling at a rate slower than the worst-case internal

propagation delay Propagation delay is the time duration taken for a signal to reach its destination. It can relate to networking, electronics or physics. ''Hold time'' is the minimum interval required for the logic level to remain on the input after triggering ed ...

s. In some cases, more than one clock cycle is required to perform a predictable action. As ICs become more complex, the problem of supplying accurate and synchronized clocks to all the circuits becomes increasingly difficult. The preeminent example of such complex chips is the

microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circ ...

, the central component of modern computers, which relies on a clock from a

crystal oscillator A crystal oscillator is an electronic oscillator circuit that uses a piezoelectric crystal as a frequency-selective element. The oscillator frequency is often used to keep track of time, as in quartz wristwatches, to provide a stable clock ...

. The only exceptions are

asynchronous circuit Asynchronous circuit (clockless or self-timed circuit) is a sequential digital logic circuit that does not use a global clock circuit or signal generator to synchronize its components. Instead, the components are driven by a handshaking circui ...

s such as asynchronous CPUs. A clock signal might also be gated, that is, combined with a controlling signal that enables or disables the clock signal for a certain part of a circuit. This technique is often used to save power by effectively shutting down portions of a digital circuit when they are not in use, but comes at a cost of increased complexity in timing analysis.

Single-phase clock

Most modern

synchronous circuit In digital electronics, a synchronous circuit is a digital circuit in which the changes in the state of memory elements are synchronized by a clock signal. In a sequential digital logic circuit, data are stored in memory devices called flip-f ...

s use only a "single phase clock" – in other words, all clock signals are (effectively) transmitted on 1 wire.

Two-phase clock

s, a "two-phase clock" refers to clock signals distributed on 2 wires, each with non-overlapping pulses. Traditionally one wire is called "phase 1" or "φ1" (

phi Phi (; uppercase Φ, lowercase φ or ϕ; grc, ϕεῖ ''pheî'' ; Modern Greek: ''fi'' ) is the 21st letter of the Greek alphabet. In Archaic and Classical Greek (c. 9th century BC to 4th century BC), it represented an aspirated voicele ...

1), the other wire carries the "phase 2" or "φ2" signal.Two-phase clock
Because the two phases are guaranteed non-overlapping,

gated latch In electronics, a flip-flop or latch is a circuit that has two stable states and can be used to store state information – a bistable multivibrator. The circuit can be made to change state by signals applied to one or more control inputs and w ...

es rather than

edge-triggered flip-flop In electronics, a flip-flop or latch is a circuit that has two stable states and can be used to store state information – a bistable multivibrator. The circuit can be made to change state by signals applied to one or more control inputs and w ...

s can be used to store state information so long as the inputs to latches on one phase only depend on outputs from latches on the other phase. Since a gated latch uses only four gates versus six gates for an edge-triggered flip-flop, a two phase clock can lead to a design with a smaller overall gate count but usually at some penalty in design difficulty and performance.

Metal oxide semiconductor The metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET, MOS-FET, or MOS FET) is a type of field-effect transistor (FET), most commonly fabricated by the thermal oxidation, controlled oxidation of silicon. It has an insulated gate, the ...

(MOS) ICs typically used dual clock signals (a two-phase clock) in the 1970s. These were generated externally for both the

Motorola 6800 The 6800 ("''sixty-eight hundred''") is an 8-bit microprocessor designed and first manufactured by Motorola in 1974. The MC6800 microprocessor was part of the M6800 Microcomputer System (latter dubbed ''68xx'') that also included serial and para ...

and

Intel 8080 The Intel 8080 (''"eighty-eighty"'') is the second 8-bit microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel. It first appeared in April 1974 and is an extended and enhanced variant of the earlier 8008 design, although without binary compatibil ...

microprocessors. Motorola's Component Products Department sold hybrid ICs that included a quartz oscillator. These IC produced the two-phase non-overlapping waveforms the 6800 and 8080 required. Later Intel produced the 8224 clock generator and Motorola produced the MC6875. The Intel 8085 and the Motorola 6802 include this circuitry on the microprocessor chip. The next generation of microprocessors incorporated the clock generation on chip. The 8080 uses a 2 MHz clock but the processing throughput is similar to the 1 MHz 6800. The 8080 requires more clock cycles to execute a processor instruction. The 6800 has a minimum clock rate of 100 kHz and the 8080 has a minimum clock rate of 500 kHz. Higher speed versions of both microprocessors were released by 1976. The

6501 The MOS Technology 6502 (typically pronounced "sixty-five-oh-two" or "six-five-oh-two") William Mensch and the moderator both pronounce the 6502 microprocessor as ''"sixty-five-oh-two"''. is an 8-bit microprocessor that was designed by a small t ...

requires an external 2-phase clock generator. The

MOS Technology 6502 The MOS Technology 6502 (typically pronounced "sixty-five-oh-two" or "six-five-oh-two") William Mensch and the moderator both pronounce the 6502 microprocessor as ''"sixty-five-oh-two"''. is an 8-bit microprocessor that was designed by a small te ...

uses the same 2-phase logic internally, but also includes a two-phase clock generator on-chip, so it only needs a single phase clock input, simplifying system design.

4-phase clock

Some early integrated circuits use

four-phase logic Four-phase logic is a type of, and design methodology for dynamic logic. It enabled non-specialist engineers to design quite complex ICs, using either PMOS or NMOS processes. It uses a kind of 4-phase clock signal. History R. K. "Bob" Boo ...

, requiring a four phase clock input consisting of four separate, non-overlapping clock signals. This was particularly common among early microprocessors such as the

National Semiconductor National Semiconductor was an American semiconductor manufacturer which specialized in analog devices and subsystems, formerly with headquarters in Santa Clara, California. The company produced power management integrated circuits, display dr ...

IMP-16 The IMP-16, by National Semiconductor, was the first multi-chip 16-bit microprocessor, released in 1973. It consisted of five PMOS integrated circuits: four identical RALU chips, short for register and ALU, providing the data path, and one CROM ...

Texas Instruments TMS9900 Introduced in June 1976, the TMS9900 was one of the first commercially available, single-chip 16-bit microprocessors. It implemented Texas Instruments' TI-990 minicomputer architecture in a single-chip format, and was initially used for low-end m ...

, and the

Western Digital Western Digital Corporation (WDC, commonly known as Western Digital or WD) is an American computer drive manufacturer and data storage company, headquartered in San Jose, California. It designs, manufactures and sells data technology produc ...

WD16 chipset used in the DEC LSI-11. Four phase clocks have only rarely been used in newer CMOS processors such as the DEC WRL MultiTitan microprocessor. and in

Intrinsity Intrinsity was a privately held Austin, Texas based fabless semiconductor company; it was founded in 1997 as ''EVSX'' on the remnants of Exponential Technology and changed its name to Intrinsity in 2000. It had around 100 employees and supplied too ...

's Fast14 technology. Most modern microprocessors and microcontrollers use a single-phase clock.

Clock multiplier

Many modern microcomputers use a " clock multiplier" which multiplies a lower frequency external clock to the appropriate

clock rate In computing, the clock rate or clock speed typically refers to the frequency at which the clock generator of a processor can generate pulses, which are used to synchronize the operations of its components, and is used as an indicator of the pr ...

of the microprocessor. This allows the CPU to operate at a much higher frequency than the rest of the computer, which affords performance gains in situations where the CPU does not need to wait on an external factor (like memory or

input/output In computing, input/output (I/O, or informally io or IO) is the communication between an information processing system, such as a computer, and the outside world, possibly a human or another information processing system. Inputs are the signals ...

Dynamic frequency change

The vast majority of digital devices do not require a clock at a fixed, constant frequency. As long as the minimum and maximum clock periods are respected, the time between clock edges can vary widely from one edge to the next and back again. Such digital devices work just as well with a clock generator that dynamically changes its frequency, such as spread-spectrum clock generation,

dynamic frequency scaling Dynamic frequency scaling (also known as CPU throttling) is a power management technique in computer architecture whereby the frequency of a microprocessor can be automatically adjusted "on the fly" depending on the actual needs, to conserve ...

, etc. Devices that use static logic do not even have a maximum clock period (or in other words, minimum clock frequency); such devices can be slowed and paused indefinitely, then resumed at full clock speed at any later time.

Other circuits

Some sensitive mixed-signal circuits, such as precision

analog-to-digital converter In electronics, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC, A/D, or A-to-D) is a system that converts an analog signal, such as a sound picked up by a microphone or light entering a digital camera, into a digital signal. An ADC may also provide ...

s, use sine waves rather than square waves as their clock signals, because square waves contain high-frequency harmonics that can interfere with the analog circuitry and cause

noise Noise is unwanted sound considered unpleasant, loud or disruptive to hearing. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrations through a medium, such as air or water. The difference aris ...

. Such sine wave clocks are often differential signals, because this type of signal has twice the

slew rate In electronics, slew rate is defined as the change of voltage or current, or any other electrical quantity, per unit of time. Expressed in SI units, the unit of measurement is volts/second or amperes/second, but is usually expressed in terms of m ...

, and therefore half the timing uncertainty, of a single-ended signal with the same voltage range. Differential signals radiate less strongly than a single line. Alternatively, a single line shielded by power and ground lines can be used. In CMOS circuits, gate capacitances are charged and discharged continually. A capacitor does not dissipate energy, but energy is wasted in the driving transistors. In

reversible computing Reversible computing is any model of computation where the computational process, to some extent, is time-reversible. In a model of computation that uses deterministic transitions from one state of the abstract machine to another, a necessary co ...

inductor An inductor, also called a coil, choke, or reactor, is a passive two-terminal electrical component that stores energy in a magnetic field when electric current flows through it. An inductor typically consists of an insulated wire wound into a c ...

s can be used to store this energy and reduce the energy loss, but they tend to be quite large. Alternatively, using a sine wave clock, CMOS

transmission gate A transmission gate (TG) is an analog gate similar to a relay that can conduct in both directions or block by a control signal with almost any voltage potential. It is a CMOS-based switch, in which PMOS passes a strong 1 but poor 0, and NMOS passes ...

s and energy-saving techniques, the power requirements can be reduced.

Distribution

The most effective way to get the clock signal to every part of a chip that needs it, with the lowest skew, is a metal grid. In a large microprocessor, the power used to drive the clock signal can be over 30% of the total power used by the entire chip. The whole structure with the gates at the ends and all amplifiers in between have to be loaded and unloaded every cycle. To save energy,

clock gating Clock gating is a popular technique used in many synchronous circuits for reducing dynamic power dissipation, by removing the clock signal when the circuit is not in use or ignores clock signal. Clock gating saves power by pruning the clock tree, ...

temporarily shuts off part of the tree. The clock distribution network (or clock tree, when this network forms a tree) distributes the clock signal(s) from a common point to all the elements that need it. Since this function is vital to the operation of a synchronous system, much attention has been given to the characteristics of these clock signals and the

electrical network An electrical network is an interconnection of electrical components (e.g., batteries, resistors, inductors, capacitors, switches, transistors) or a model of such an interconnection, consisting of electrical elements (e.g., voltage sources ...

s used in their distribution. Clock signals are often regarded as simple control signals; however, these signals have some very special characteristics and attributes. Clock signals are typically loaded with the greatest

fanout In digital electronics, the fan-out is the number of gate inputs driven by the output of another single logic gate. In most designs, logic gates are connected to form more complex circuits. While no logic gate input can be fed by more than one ...

and operate at the highest speeds of any signal within the synchronous system. Since the data signals are provided with a temporal reference by the clock signals, the clock

waveform In electronics, acoustics, and related fields, the waveform of a signal is the shape of its graph as a function of time, independent of its time and magnitude scales and of any displacement in time.David Crecraft, David Gorham, ''Electro ...

s must be particularly clean and sharp. Furthermore, these clock signals are particularly affected by technology scaling (see Moore's law), in that long global interconnect lines become significantly more resistive as line dimensions are decreased. This increased line resistance is one of the primary reasons for the increasing significance of clock distribution on synchronous performance. Finally, the control of any differences and uncertainty in the arrival times of the clock signals can severely limit the maximum performance of the entire system and create catastrophic

race conditions A race condition or race hazard is the condition of an electronics, software, or other system where the system's substantive behavior is dependent on the sequence or timing of other uncontrollable events. It becomes a bug when one or more of ...

in which an incorrect data signal may latch within a register. Most synchronous '' digital'' systems consist of cascaded banks of sequential registers with

combinational logic In automata theory, combinational logic (also referred to as time-independent logic or combinatorial logic) is a type of digital logic which is implemented by Boolean circuits, where the output is a pure function of the present input only. This ...

between each set of registers. The

functional requirements In software engineering and systems engineering, a functional requirement defines a function of a system or its component, where a function is described as a specification of behavior between inputs and outputs. Functional requirements may invol ...

of the digital system are satisfied by the logic stages. Each logic stage introduces delay that affects timing performance, and the timing performance of the digital design can be evaluated relative to the timing requirements by a timing analysis. Often special consideration must be made to meet the timing requirements. For example, the global performance and local timing requirements may be satisfied by the careful insertion of pipeline registers into equally spaced time windows to satisfy critical worst-case '' timing constraints''. The proper design of the clock distribution network helps ensure that critical timing requirements are satisfied and that no race conditions exist (see also

clock skew Clock skew (sometimes called timing skew) is a phenomenon in synchronous digital circuit systems (such as computer systems) in which the same sourced clock signal arrives at different components at different times due to gate or, in more advanced ...

). The delay components that make up a general synchronous system are composed of the following three individual subsystems: the memory storage elements, the logic elements, and the clocking circuitry and distribution network. Novel structures are currently under development to ameliorate these issues and provide effective solutions. Important areas of research include resonant clocking techniques, on-chip optical interconnect, and local synchronization methodologies.