The Production of Completion Signals by Asynchronous, Iterative Networks

In a synchronous circuit an operation is complete when a given number of clock times have elapsed since it was begun. In an asynchronous network no such indication is available, and we must either rely on the network to inform us of completion, or wait for the worst-case delay. The second method is undesirable because normally the network will complete its operation long before the worst-case delay time has elasped. It will be shown here that, for a large class of iterative circuits, the network can be designed to inform us of completion. Moreover, this can be done without recourse to monitoring all lateral states (to see when none are changing).