The design of circuits with no timing references using the ALMA environment

ALMA is a structured ASIC design methodology for silicon compilation to be used as a front end to existing CAD environments which provide the lower level silicon compilation tools (data path compiler, logic synthesizer, place-and-route, etc.). The methodology relies on the use of cell libraries available from vendors and a new hardware description language called 'A'. The language describes the structure of the circuit and its behaviour by giving the sequence of operations to be performed without any timing reference. Automatic sequencing is then done according to the exact timing characteristics of the used library cells. ALMA provides interfaces to the host CAD and generates a C program, which has the same functionality as the A source code given by the designer, and which includes the timing references.<
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