Scalable formal design methods for asynchronous VLSI

ABSTRACT

This lecture will provide an overview of the field of asynchronous VLSI, and show how formal methods have played a critical role in the design of complex asynchronous systems. In particular, I will talk about program transformations and their application to asynchronous VLSI, as well as describe a simple language that I developed to describe these circuits and aid in their validation.

REFERENCES

• 1: Steven M. Burns , Alain J. Martin, Syntax-directed translation of concurrent programs into self-timed circuits, Proceedings of the fifth MIT conference on Advanced research in VLSI, p.35-50, January 1988, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
• 2: R. Manohar. A case for asynchronous computer architecture. In ISCA Workshop on Complexity-Effective Design, June 2001.
• 3: Rajit Manohar , Tak-Kwan Lee , Alain J. Martin, Projection: A Synthesis Technique for Concurrent Systems, Proceedings of the 5th International Symposium on Advanced Research in Asynchronous Circuits and Systems, p.125, April 19-21, 1999
• 4: Rajit Manohar , Alain J. Martin, Slack Elasticity in Concurrent Computing, Proceedings of the Mathematics of Program Construction, p.272-285, June 15-17, 1998
• 5: R. Manohar and A. J. Martin. Pipelined mutual exclusion and the design of an asynchronous microprocessor. Technical Report CSL-TR-2001-1017, Cornell University, 2001.
• 6: A. J. Martin. Compiling communicating processes into delay-insensitive VLSI circuits. Distributed Computing, 1(4):226-234, 1986.
• 7: A. J. Martin, Formal program transformations for VLSI circuit synthesis, Formal development programs and proofs, Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1989
• 8: Alain J. Martin , Steven M. Burns , T. K. Lee , Drazen Borkovic , Pieter J. Hazewindus, The design of an asynchronous microprocessor, Proceedings of the decennial Caltech conference on VLSI on Advanced research in VLSI, p.351-373, June 1989, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
• 9: Alain J. Martin , Andrew Lines , Rajit Manohar , Mika Nystroem , Paul Penzes , Robert Southworth , Uri Cummings, The Design of an Asynchronous MIPS R3000 Microprocessor, Proceedings of the 17th Conference on Advanced Research in VLSI (ARVLSI '97), p.164, September 15-16, 1997