Circuits Without Clocks: What Makes Them Tick?

Abstract

In the past ten years interest in asynchronous circuit design has increased dramatically, both in academia and industry. Among the reasons for this sudden revival are the potential benefits of speed, low power consumption, modularity of design, and reduced electro-magnetic radiation. In this talk I will give a brief historical overview of asynchronous circuits, illustrate their potential by means of recent chip designs, and discuss some of the challenges yet to overcome. As examples I will use various circuits designed at Sun Microsystems Laboratories.

Here is a paper related to the talk.