ACiD-WG Home Page

Welcome to the home page of the Working Group on Asynchronous Circuit Design (ACiD-WG). The European Commission funded the Working Group under Framework Programme FP5 Microelectronics (IST-1999-29119) for the period 1st September 2000 - 31st January 2005, and previously under FP3 Basic Research (EP7225) and FP4 Technologies for Components and Subsystems (EP21949).

Objectives...Description of the work...Membership...Forum for Members

The following links enable you to find out...

which companies became industrial affiliates of the Working Group...about sister-projects... what we have done...about the technology... how members of the Working Group were recognized for the excellence of their research... how members of the Working Group exploited the technology... about events organised by us...about events sponsored by us...about events held in co-operation with us...about events at which we have been represented...

Objectives for FP5

ACiD-WG aimed at improving the systematic exchange of information and the forging of links between teams which carry out RTD or take-up activities around the theme of asynchronous circuit design. Its objectives in FP5 were as follows:

To encourage excellence in science and technology research pertaining to asynchronous circuits and systems.
To facilitate the development of methods and tools that are usable by engineers for the design of asynchronous VLSI systems.
To promote the adoption of asynchronous circuit design in industry.

Description of the work during FP5

Four workshops were organised, hosted by members of the Working Group and took place in different member and associated states of the European Union, on the theme of asynchronous circuits and systems. Attendance and presentations by all members of the Working Group and by industrial affiliates were encouraged. Invitations to participate were also extended to non-members of the Working Group. In addition, visits between members took place and special interest group meetings were organised.

A summer school and winter school were organised for the second year and fifth year of the contract, respectively. Members of the Working Group host these schools. Additional teaching and training activities took place. For example, ACiD-WG co-operated with the organisation of six-monthly meetings in the UK aimed at PhD students.

Members of the Working Group engaged in activities aimed at generating interest and awareness in asynchronous circuits and systems, e.g., exploratory visits to companies, and tutorials at conferences. They also disseminated the results of their research, e.g., posters and presentations at conferences, and publication of books and journal articles. Trip reports were produced and linked to this web page.

To demonstrate the strength of European RTD in asynchronous circuits and systems, participation in the annual "Async" international symposium was considered particularly desirable.

A report "Design, Automation and Test for Asynchronous Circuits and Systems" was commissioned, which should be of value to potential users of asynchronous circuit technology and to tools developers. It was followed up by an annual public overview of the status of asynchronous design in industrial use.

Membership during FP5

*Participant No.*	*Short Name*	*Country Code*	*Type of Organisation*	*Scientific Person*
1	LSBU	UK	U	Mark Josephs
2	Philips Research	NL	I	Ad Peeters
3	Infineon	D	I	Christoph Heer
4	ST	F	I	Jean-Pierre Schoellkopf
5	CSEM	S	R	Christian Piguet
6	IHP	D	R	Eckhard Grass
7	MBDA	UK	I	Eric Campbell
8	UoM	UK	U	Doug Edwards
9	UNew	UK	U	Alex Yakovlev
10	UCam-CLab	UK	U	Simon Moore
11	UPC	E	U	Jordi Cortadella
12	UDI*	I	U	Luciano Lavagno
13	TUE*	NL	U	Tom Verhoeff
14	INPG-TIMA	F	U	Marc Renaudin
15	DTU	DK	U	Jens Sparsø
16	Technion	IL	U	Ran Ginosar
17	Åbo Akademi	FIN	U	Kaisa Sere
18	AT&T*	UK	I	Phil Endecott
19	NNT	IL	I	Victor Varshavsky (deceased)
20	PoliTo	I	U	Luciano Lavagno
21	FORTH/ICS	EL	R	Christos Sotiriou

U = University; R= Research Institute; I=Industrial organisation
* Membership terminated.

The following links enable you to find out...

which companies became industrial affiliates of the Working Group ...

Accentime Inc, CA

ARM Limited, UK

Cadence Design Systems, US

ExMark (Technical Marketing Services), UK

Intel Corporation (Strategic CAD Labs), US

Kramer-Consulting, DE

Philips Semiconductors (Automotive), NL

Sun Microsystems Laboratories (Asynchronous Design Group), US

Theseus Logic, US

about sister-projects ...

Asynchronous open-source processor IP of the DLX architecture (ASPIDA) IST-2002-37796

Third generation smart card (G3Card) IST-1999-13515

what we have done ...

Final report on ACiD-WG activities in FP5

Fifth annual report on ACiD-WG activities in FP5

Fourth annual report on ACiD-WG activities in FP5

Third annual report on ACiD-WG activities in FP5

Second annual report on ACiD-WG activities in FP5

First annual report on ACiD-WG activities in FP5

Final report on ACiD-WG activities in FP4

Fourth annual report on ACiD-WG activities in FP4

Third annual report on ACiD-WG activities in FP4

Second annual report on ACiD-WG activities in FP4

First annual report on ACiD-WG activities in FP4

Final report on ACiD-WG activities in FP3

about the technology ...

ACiD-WG report on "The Status of Asynchronous Design in Industry", 3rd edition, June 2004 (edited by Doug Edwards and Will Toms)

ACiD-WG report on "Design, Automation and Test for Asynchronous Circuits and Systems", 3rd edition, June 2004 (edited by Doug Edwards and Will Toms)

book on "Logic Synthesis of Asynchronous Controllers and Interfaces", Springer Series in Advanced Microelectronics, Vol. 8, March 2002 (authored by Jordi Cortadella, Mike Kishinevsky, Alex Kondratyev, Luciano Lavagno and Alex Yakovlev)

book on "Principles of Asynchronous Circuit Design: A Systems Perspective", Kluwer Academic Publishers, December 2001 (edited by Jens Sparsø and Steve Furber)

Special issue of 'Proceedings of the IEEE' on asynchronous circuits and systems, February 1999 (with Nowick, Josephs and Van Berkel as guest co-editors)

Asynchronous Logic Home Page (maintained by the University of Manchester), which includes information about

Asynchronous Mailing List

asynchronous tools available on the Internet

Asynchronous Bibliography (maintained by Eindhoven University of Technology)

how members of the Working Group were recognized for the excellence of their research ...

A Queen’s Awards for Enterprise 2004, in the Innovation category, has been conferred on MBDA for its development and industrial application of the "Butler Chip". The Butler Chip, developed at MBDA’s Stevenage Research and Development facility for integration in advanced guided-weapon systems, provides hardware support to replace a conventional computer software operating system. Approximately half of this 460K-gate ASIC is clock-free circuitry.

The project "Petrify: methodology and tool for logic synthesis of asynchronous circuits", co-ordinated by UPC and involving PoliTo, UNew, Intel and Cadence, was selected as one of the ten finalist projects for the 2002 EU Descartes Prize for outstanding research through transnational collaboration. The Panel Presidents commented: "The project has outstanding scientific qualities, and represents a long history of excellent teamwork. The results of the project will aid the application of asynchronous integrated circuits, which have significant industrial potential. The design tools which form the main results of the project are founded on very solid mathematical theory, and they have already been put to use by the scientific community in companies and academia."

how members of the Working Group exploited the technology ...

Silistix Limited is a spin-out of UoM. It is featured in the September 2004 issue of IEE Review.

Handshake Solutions is a Line of Business within the Technology Incubator of Philips Research

SmartMX family of smartcard microcontrollers based on 8051 architecture, uses "high performing, power saving, Tangram design methodology", announced 2001

P83CL882 (2001) and P87CL888 (2002) Telephony Controllers, and PCA5007 (1998) and PCA5010 (1988) Pager Baseband Controllers (featuring a "full static asynchronous 80C51 CPU")