Abstract
One approach to the design of VLSI systems involves the use of asynchronous circuits that communicate by handshaking with each other. The control circuitry generated when following this approach often includes large trees of binary sequencer components. This paper demonstrates that there is scope here for optimization (in order to improve size, speed and energy consumption). Indeed, an industrial-strength silicon compiler has now been modified to take advantage of this fact.
The problem that is addressed concerns the design of efficient control circuits that sequenceN four-phase handshakes (N > 2). Muller's speed-independent discipline facilitates the design of such circuits. SI-Algebra, a calculus that supports that discipline, is used to specify the problem and to verify (using recursion-induction) various implementations. Simple counting arguments at the gate level establish that optimization using these implementations is worthwhile.
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Josephs, M.B., Bailey, A.M. The Use of SI-Algebra in the design of sequencer circuits. Formal Aspects of Computing 9, 395–408 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01211298
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01211298