The return of asynchronous logic

There is now compelling evidence that asynchronous design is, indeed, feasible on CMOS VLSI, since several complex asynchronous chips have been built and shown to work. The work at Philips amply demonstrates power savings (at least within a particular application domain) and their elegant Tangpam synthesis tools support the concurrency claim. However, much more needs to be done to validate all these claims. Perhaps more convincing is the increasing industrial interest. Among the established players, Philips and Sun have invested considerable internal resource in asynchronous technology, and recently Intel has shown active interest. Whenever a significant technology change is foreseen, start-up companies form to exploit the inertia of the multinationals, and asynchronous logic can now claim at least two such new companies