Direct Implementation of Asynchronous Control Units

  • Authors:
  • L. A. Hollaar

  • Affiliations:
  • Department of Computer Science, University of Utah.

  • Venue:
  • IEEE Transactions on Computers
  • Year:
  • 1982

Quantified Score

Hi-index 14.98

Visualization

Abstract

The "one-hot" row assignment for asynchronous circuits, in which every row in a flow table has exactly one of the feedback variables that equals the value 1, provides a straightforward method for circuit synthesis. Once a flow table has been constructed, the state equations can be directly written, without requiring any procedure to ensure a race-free assignment. Furthermore, it can implement any arbitrary fundamental mode asynchronous circuit, not depending on a specific signaling protocol for its correct operation. An alternate view of one-hot asynchronous circuits is given, with a simple set-reset flip-flop for each state. Although this may seem excessive compared to implementations with encoded state variables, for many circuits their one-hot implementation is comparable in cost to other asynchronous implementations.