Date: Tue, 10 Dec 1996 03:20:41 GMT Server: NCSA/1.4.2 Content-type: text/html Last-modified: Fri, 11 Nov 1994 20:07:17 GMT Content-length: 2405 Asynchronous Circuits

Asynchronous Circuits


Asynchronous design has been an active area of research since at least the mid 1950's, but has yet to achieve widespread use. In "Asynchronous Design Methodologies: An Overview" we examine the benefits and problems inherent in asynchronous computations, and in some of the more notable design methodologies. These include Huffman asynchronous circuits, burst-mode circuits, Micropipelines, template-based and Trace Theory-based delay-insensitive circuits, Signal Transition Graphs, Change Diagrams, and compilation-based quasi-delay-insensitive circuits.

This paper is meant to be readable by someone with some experience with logic design, but not necessarily any exposure to asynchronous circuits. It may also serve as a good overview of the field for someone with a strong knowledge of specific asynchronous methodology(ies).

Also relevant to asynchronous circuits is Montage, the first FPGA for asynchronous circuits. The paper "An FPGA For Implementing Asynchronous Circuits", gives a good overview of the architecture and software tools, though the hypertext page Triptych/Montage FPGA Architectures will give a quick taste.

Primary References

S. Hauck. "Asynchronous Design Methodologies: An Overview", to appear in Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 83, No. 1, January 1995.

S. Hauck, S. Burns, G. Borriello, C. Ebeling. "An FPGA For Implementing Asynchronous Circuits", IEEE Design & Test of Computers, Vol. 11, No. 3, Fall, 1994.

Secondary References

S. Hauck, G. Borriello, S. Burns, C. Ebeling. "Field-Programmable Gate Array for Synchronous and Asynchronous Operation", U.S. Patent Pending.

S. Hauck, G. Borriello, S. Burns and C. Ebeling. "Montage: An FPGA for Synchronous and Asynchronous Circuits", FPL '92, Vienna, August 1992.