Handshake Circuits: An Asynchronous Architecture for VLSI Programming (Cambridge International Series on Parallel Computation) Book

This volume describes a programming approach to the design of digital VLSI circuits. Programs written in the VLSI-programming language Tangram can be compiled automatically in full asynchronous (delay-insensitive) circuits. Handshake circuits serve as an intermediary in this translation, separating programming concerns from concerns of efficient VLSI-circuit implementation. Handshake circuits have been invented by Kees van Berkel, and were further developed at Philips Research Laboratories. The book presents a mathematical theory of handshake circuits and a silicon compiler supported by a correctness proof. The treatment of VLSI realizations of handshake circuits includes various forms of optimization, handshake refinement, message encoding, circuit initialization, and testing. The approach is illustrated by a host of examples drawn from a wide range of application areas, including FIFO queues, shift registers, FIR filters, median filters, block sorters, a greatest common divisor, modulo-N counters, stacks, a nacking arbiter, and a simple processor. The treatment of these examples emphasizes concerns for circuit cost, performance, and power consumption. The book includes an evaluation of a compiled and fabricated IC.