PLFire: a visualization tool for asynchronous phased logic designs

We present a visualization tool called PLFire, which allows a user to observe the behavior of a Phased Logic (PL) circuit. Phased logic is a technique for realizing self-timed circuitry that is delay-insensitive and requires no global clock. One advantage of self-timed circuits is that throughput is based on average propagation delays and not worst-case delay. By being able to visualize the operation of a PL circuit, including the token flow, a designer gets a better understanding of what features of a design have the greatest impact on performance.