Asynchronous Guarded Atomic Action Machines
Michal Karczmarek & Arvind
Abstract
Guarded atomic action machines are state machines which execute certain
actions only if specific predicates are true. Execution of each action
updates the state in an atomic manner. Thus there is a sequential ordering
of actions that describes the updates of the state machine.
In my research I am exploring methods for synthesizing guarded atomic
action machines into multi-cycle synchyronous circuits. This approach
promises to help solve the timing closure problem, as critical-path computation
can automatically be split into several cycles without changing the semantics
of the original description. This research also promisses to give insight
into synthesis of asynchronous circuits for guarded atomic actions. Asynchronous
circuits promise a number of improvements over the well understood sequential
circuits:
- asynchronous circuits can be optimized for the average case, rather
than worst case
- low power is an inherent property of asynchronous circuits, no special
techniques such as clock gating are required to achieve it
- asynchronous circuits are more resilient to bad layout and process
variations
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