Introduction to Octasic Asynchronous Processor Technology

Since 2004 Octasic has worked on developing a unique asynchronous processor methodology and architecture targeted at Digital Signal Processing. A first commercial product, the OCT1010, was released in 2008. Octasic's second-generation OCT2200 product was released in 2011. These devices are used commercially and deployed in production telecom equipment sold by dozens of customers worldwide. This paper provides what led to the development of Octasic's asynchronous methodology and architecture, and summarily describes the asynchronous circuits and the processor architecture and operation. The asynchronous technology is then compared to an equivalent technology synchronous processor implementation and the paper concludes with a summary of the advantages of the asynchronous technology.