Introduction
Synchronous FIFOs are the ideal choice for highperformance systems due to high operating speed. Synchronous FIFOs also offer many other advantages that improve system performance and reduce complexity. These include status flags: synchronous flags, half-full, programmable almost-empty and almost-full flags. These FIFOs also include features such as, width expansion, depth expansion, and retransmit. Synchronous FIFOs are easier to use at high speeds because they use freerunning clocks to time internal operations whereas asynchronous FIFOs require read and write pulses to be generated without an external clock reference.
The content of the application note has also been captured in a training module. This audio visual tutorial provides an introduction to FIFO architecture & its functionality. It also explains basic FIFO features such as flags, expansion logic, timing specifications and some additional features specific to Synchronous FIFOs. A brief introduction to Cypress’s portfolio of Synchronous FIFOs & its applications is also included.
