Objective
The objective of EXACT is to demonstrate that asynchronous circuit techniques (ie circuits that do not use a clock) can be exploited to:
- reduce power consumption in microsystems applied to digital signal and data processing.
- specify and design high-performance I/O interface circuits between both synchronous and asynchronous VLSI subsystems.
Micropipeline and handshake circuit architectures have been compared, the possibility of blending these 2 styles investigated. Design techniques and computer aided design (CAD) tools for the automatic synthesis of asynchronous control circuits for interface applications have been developed. The following have been constructed:
Benchmark circuits to compare the various approaches to asynchronous circuit design;
a prototype compiler for asynchronous interface control circuits;
several asynchronous implementations of the 12 C input/output (I/O) expander;
a formal specification and prototype silicon for the digital compact cassette (DCC) error detector (consuming only 2.5 mW, 80% less than the synchronous integrated circuit (IC).
The specific goals of the EXACT project are to contribute to solving the energy consumption/dissipation problem in digital data and signal processing; to develop novel techniques and tools for system interfacing; to show that asynchronous circuits can be built in a disciplined way; and to demonstrate the claimed power-saving properties in a commercially relevant application.
The approach is to:
- compare the micropipeline and handshake-circuit architectures, and to investigate the possibility of blending these two styles
- develop design techniques and CAD tools for the automatic synthesis of asynchronous control circuits for interface applications (the commercial exploitation of these tools will be investigated as well)
- design and manufacture two demonstrator circuits: . an I2C I/O expander (Philips PCF 8574)
. an error detector based on DCC (Digital Compact Cassette) specifications in order to demonstrate the feasibility and low power potential of the methods.
Fields of science
Topic(s)
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5656 AA EINDHOVEN
Netherlands