Synthesis of SI Circuits from Burst-Mode Specifications

In this paper, we present a new workflow that is based on the conversion of Extended Burst-Mode (XBM) specifications to Signal Transition Graphs (STGs). While XBMs offer a simple design entry to specify asynchronous circuits, they cannot be synthesised into speed-independent (SI) circuits, due to the ‘burst mode’ timing assumption inherent in the model. Furthermore, XBM synthesis tools are no longer supported, and there are no dedicated tools for formal verification of XBMs. Our approach addresses these issues, by granting the XBMs access to sophisticated synthesis and verification tools available for STGs, as well as the possibility to synthesise SI circuits. Experimental results show that our translation only linearly increases the model size and that our workflow achieves a much improved synthesis success rate, with a 33% average reduction in the literal count.