UCLOCK: automated design of high-performance unclocked state machines

A new automated method is described for the correct design of asynchronous state machines. The method builds upon recent work using "burst-mode" specifications, a class of specifications which allow multiple-input change fundamental-mode operation. Implementations are built as unclocked Huffman machines, requiring no latches or other sequential elements. The method has several significant advantages over both the classical methods of Unger (1969) Friedman and Menon (1968) and Mago (1971) as well as recent methods of Nowick et al. (1991), Yun et al. (1992) and Davis et al. (1993). The synthesis method is applied to several design examples. >