Mixed synchronous/asynchronous state memory for low power FSM design

Finite state machine (FSM) partitioning proves effective for power optimization. In this paper we propose a design model based on mixed synchronous/asynchronous state memory that results in implementations with low power dissipation and low area overhead for partitioned FSMs. The state memory here is composed of the synchronous local state memory and asynchronous global state memory, where the former is used to distinguish the states inside a sub-FSM, and the latter is responsible for controlling sub-FSM communication. The input and output behaviour of the decomposed FSM is cycle by cycle equivalent to the undecomposed synchronous FSM. Together with clock gating technique, substantial power reduction can be demonstrated.