Unlike conventional synchronous circuits, asynchronous circuits are not coordinated by a clocking signal, but instead use handshaking protocols to control circuit behaviour. Asynchronous circuits have been found to offer several advantages, including high energy efficiency, flexible timing requirements, high modularity, low noise/EMI, and robustness to PVT variations. At the same time, growing pressures on the electronics industry for ever smaller, more efficient ICs are pushing the limits of conventional circuit technologies. These factors are spurring growing interest in asynchronous circuits amongst both the academic research and commercial R&D communities.

Principles of Asynchronous Circuit Design - A Systems Perspective addresses the need for an introductory text on asynchronous circuit design. Part I is an 8-chapter tutorial which addresses the most important issues for the beginner, including how to think about asynchronous systems. Part II is a 4-chapter introduction to Balsa, a freely-available synthesis system for asynchronous circuits which will enable the reader to get hands-on experience of designing high-level asynchronous systems. Part III offers a number of examples of state-of-the-art asynchronous systems to illustrate what can be built using asynchronous techniques. The examples range from a complete commercial smart card chip to complex microprocessors. The objective in writing this book has been to enable industrial designers with a background in conventional (clocked) design to be able to understand asynchronous design sufficiently to assess what it has to offer and whether it might be advantageous in their next design task.

With asynchronous circuit design becoming a powerful tool in thedevelopment of new digital systems, circuit designers are expectedto have asynchronous design skills and be able to leverage them toreduce power consumption and increase system speed. This book walksreaders through all of the different methodologies of asynchronouscircuit design, emphasizing practical techniques and real-worldapplications instead of theoretical simulation. The only guide ofits kind, it also features an ftp site complete with supportmaterials. Market: Electrical Engineers, Computer Scientists, DeviceDesigners, and Developers in industry. An Instructor Support FTP site is available from the Wileyeditorial department.

The design of asynchronous circuits is increasingly important in solving problems such as complexity management, modularity, power consumption and clock distribution in large digital integrated circuits.

As the costs of power and timing become increasingly difficult to manage in traditional synchronous systems, designers are being forced to look at asynchronous alternatives. Based on reworked and expanded papers from the VII Banff Higher Order Workshop, this volume examines asynchronous methods which have been used in large circuit design, ranging from initial formal specification to more standard finite state machine based control models. Written by leading practitioners in the area, the papers cover many aspects of current practice including practical design, silicon compilation, and applications of formal specification. It also includes a state-of-the-art survey of asynchronous hardware design. The resulting volume will be invaluable to anyone interested in designing correct asynchronous circuits which exhibit high performance or low power operation.

Asynchronous Sequential Machine Design and Analysis provides a lucid, in-depth treatment of asynchronous state machine design and analysis presented in two parts: Part I on the background fundamentals related to asynchronous sequential logic circuits generally, and Part II on self-timed systems, high-performance asynchronous programmable sequencers, and arbiters. Part I provides a detailed review of the background fundamentals for the design and analysis of asynchronous finite state machines (FSMs). Included are the basic models, use of fully documented state diagrams, and the design and characteristics of basic memory cells and Muller C-elements. Simple FSMs using C-elements illustrate the design process. The detection and elimination of timing defects in asynchronous FSMs are covered in detail. This is followed by the array algebraic approach to the design of single-transition-time machines and use of CAD software for that purpose, one-hot asynchronous FSMs, and pulse mode FSMs. Part I concludes with the analysis procedures for asynchronous state machines. Part II is concerned mainly with self-timed systems, programmable sequencers, and arbiters. It begins with a detailed treatment of externally asynchronous/internally clocked (or pausable) systems that are delay-insensitive and metastability-hardened. This is followed by defect-free cascadable asynchronous sequencers, and defect-free one-hot asynchronous programmable sequencers--their characteristics, design, and applications. Part II concludes with arbiter modules of various types, those with and without metastability protection, together with applications. Presented in the appendices are brief reviews covering mixed-logic gate symbology, Boolean algebra, and entered-variable K-map minimization. End-of-chapter problems and a glossary of terms, expressions, and abbreviations contribute to the reader's learning experience. Five productivity tools are made available specifically for use with this text and briefly discussed in the Preface. Table of Contents: I: Background Fundamentals for Design and Analysis of Asynchronous State Machines / Introduction and Background / Simple FSM Design and Initialization / Detection and Elimination of Timing Defects in Asynchronous FSMs / Design of Single Transition Time Machines / Design of One-Hot Asynchronous FSMs / Design of Pulse Mode FSMs / Analysis of Asynchronous FSMs / II: Self-Timed Systems/ Programmable Sequencers, and Arbiters / Externally Asynchronous/Internally Clocked Systems / Cascadable Asynchronous Programmable Sequencers (CAPS) and Time-Shared System Design / Asynchronous One-Hot Programmable Sequencer Systems / Arbiter Modules

Recently the world celebrated the 60th anniversary of the invention of the first transistor. The first integrated circuit (IC) was built a decade later, with the first microprocessor designed in the early 1970s. Today, ICs are a part of nearly every aspect of our daily lives. They help us live longer and more comfortably, and do more, faster. All this is possible because of the relentless search for new materials, circuit designs, and ideas happening on a daily basis at industrial and academic institutions around the globe. Showcasing the latest advances in very-large-scale integrated (VLSI) circuits, VLSI: Circuits for Emerging Applications provides a balanced view of industrial and academic developments beyond silicon and complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) technology. From quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) to chips for cochlear implants, this must-have resource: Investigates the trend of combining multiple cores in a single chip to boost performance of the overall system Describes a novel approach to enable physically unclonable functions (PUFs) using intrinsic features of a VLSI chip Examines the VLSI implementations of major symmetric and asymmetric key cryptographic algorithms, hash functions, and digital signatures Discusses nonvolatile memories such as resistive random-access memory (Re-RAM), magneto-resistive RAM (MRAM), and floating-body RAM (FB-RAM) Explores organic transistors, soft errors, photonics, nanoelectromechanical (NEM) relays, reversible computation, bioinformatics, asynchronous logic, and more VLSI: Circuits for Emerging Applications presents cutting-edge research, design architectures, materials, and uses for VLSI circuits, offering valuable insight into the current state of the art of micro- and nanoelectronics.

This book is an introduction to the design of asynchronous circuits. It is an updated and significantly extended version of an eight-chapter tutorial that first appeared as Part I in the book "Principles of asynchronous circuit design -- A systems perspective" edited by Sparsø and Furber (2001); a book that has become a standard reference on the topic. The extensions include improved coverage of data-flow components, a new chapter on two-phase bundled-data circuits, a new chapter on metastability, arbitration, and synchronization, and a new chapter on performance analysis using timed Petri nets. With these extensions, the text now provides a more complete coverage of the topic, and it is now made available as a stand-alone book. The book is a beginner's text and the amount of formal notation is deliberately kept at a minimum, using instead plain English and graphical illustrations to explain the underlying intuition and reasoning behind the concepts and methods covered. The book targets senior undergraduate and graduate students in Electrical and Computer Engineering and industrial designers with a background in conventional (clocked) digital design who wish to gain an understanding of asynchronous circuit design.

Create low power, higher performance circuits with shorter design times using this practical guide to asynchronous design. This practical alternative to conventional synchronous design enables performance close to full-custom designs with design times that approach commercially available ASIC standard cell flows. It includes design trade-offs, specific design examples, and end-of-chapter exercises. Emphasis throughout is placed on practical techniques and real-world applications, making this ideal for circuit design students interested in alternative design styles and system-on-chip circuits, as well as circuit designers in industry who need new solutions to old problems.

Describes a new way of designing VLSI circuits by programming, illustrated with examples.