MINIMALIST An Environment for the Synthesis, Veri cation and Testability of Burst-Mode Asyn.pdf

MINIMALIST: An Environment for the Synthesis, Verication and Testability of Burst-Mode Asynchronous Machines Columbia University Computer Science Dept. Tech Report #CUCS-020-99 Robert M. Fuhrer* Steven M. Nowick Michael Theobald* Niraj K. Jhay Bill Linz Luis Plana* *Dept. of Computer Sci. Columbia University New York, NY 10027 yDept. of Electrical Eng. Princeton University Princeton, NJ 08540 zDept. of Elec. Comp. Eng. Univ. of Calif. at San Diego La Jolla, CA 92093 July 26, 1999 Abstract Minimalist is a new extensible environment for the synthesis and verication of burst-mode asyn- chronous nite-state machines. Minimalist embodies a complete technology-independent synthesis path, with state-of-the-art exact and heuristic asynchronous synthesis algorithms, e.g. optimal state assignment (Chasm), two-level hazard-free logic minimization (Hfmin, Espresso-HF, and Impymin), and synthesis-for-testability. Unlike other asynchronous synthesis packages, Minimalist also oers many options: literal vs. product optimization, single- vs. multi-output logic minimization, using vs. not using fed-back outputs as state variables, and exploring varied code lengths during state assignment, thus allowing the designer to explore trade-os and select the implementation style which best suits the application. Minimalist benchmark results demonstrate its ability to produce implementations with an average of 34% and up to 48% less area, and an average of 11% and up to 37% better performance, than the best existing package [38]. Our synthesis-for-testability method guarantees 100% testability under both stuck-at and robust path delay fault models, requiring little or no overhead. Minimalist also fea- tures both command-line and graphic user interfaces, and supports extension via well-dened interfaces for adding new tools. As such, it is easily augmented to form a complete path to technology-dependent logic. 1 Introduction While asynchronous circuits have undergone a renaissance driven