Abstract :
There is now an increasing interest at the research level in asynchronous computers, and asynchronous design in general, so it is perhaps worth asking whether this is a purely academic interest, or whether, in the long term, it will reflect the design methods needed by industry, and hence those required for the education of electronics graduates. Advantages claimed for asynchronous systems include lower power, higher average performance, and improved EMC, but evidence so far produced supports some of the claims and not others. There is therefore no strong motivation for industry to change to asynchronous design, and there are some formidable barriers which act to preserve the dominance of the single clock approach. The main difficulties are the lack of adequate design tools for analysis and synthesis, and the lack of familiarity of today´s designers with the methods, and it is necessary to make the case that these methods should now be taught to undergraduates
