An apparatus for generating a second signal having a clock based on a second clock from a first signal with a first clock comprises first and second means for sampling the first signal to determine whether the first signal has a predetermined logic state, wherein first means samples the first signal with the second clock, and second means samples the first signal with a clock phase shifted to the second clock. Means for generating the second signal generates the second signal based on the second clock if it has been determined by at least one means for sampling that the first signal has the predetermined state. Especially for time critical applications, such as a DDR-RAM, a valuable latency saving is provided by the present invention.