Pipelining: definition · Chip Field Guide

Beginner

Splitting a job into steps like an assembly line, so several jobs are in progress at once and a new one can finish every tick.

Novice

Splitting a long piece of logic into shorter stages separated by registers, like an assembly line. Each stage does part of the work per clock tick, so the clock can run faster and a new result can finish every tick, even though each single operation takes several ticks.

Expert

$\text{Clock period} \approx \text{logic delay} \div \text{number of stages} + \text{per-stage overhead}$ (the register’s setup and clock-to-output times, plus clock skew and jitter). More stages also mean more cycles lost per hazard and more flip-flops, clock load and power, so performance peaks at a finite depth.