Ultra low cost asynchronous handshake checker

This paper presents a new on-line checking scheme for asynchronous handshake protocols. The proposed scheme requires very small chip area while maintaining high coverage for all considered faults which are briefly exposed. In addition to simple pass-fail information the checker provides off-line diagnosis capabilities in order to further analyze the cause of a fault and the time of its occurrence. In order to verify its functionality the checker was proven by performing analogue simulations. In addition the area overhead and the power consumption was determined and compared with existing implementations.