Asynchronous processor design for digital signal processing

Asynchronous processors, which do not require an external clocking signal, give better performance than comparable synchronous processors in situations for which global synchronization with a high-speed clock becomes a limiting factor to system throughput. Automatic synthesis and the ability to decouple the timing considerations from the design of computational blocks make this approach particularly attractive in reducing design effort when systems become complex. A number of issues relevant to asynchronous programmable processors such as interconnection circuit specifications, circuit design, data flow control, program flow control, feedback and initialization, and I/O interface are discussed