Asynchronous interfaces for IOPT-Flow to support GALS systems

Abstract

Throughout the course of time, distributing a global clock signal over a synchronous circuit has become a demanding task as a result of the broadening size and complexity of modern circuits. Globally Asynchronous Locally Synchronous (GALS) systems emerge as a solution to the laborious task of distributing a global clock over a large circuit, through the partitioning of said circuit into smaller, and therefore, more manageable blocks. The DS-Pnet (Dataflow, Signals and Petri nets) modelling language and its associated framework IOPT-Flow focus on supporting the development of cyber-physical systems, however, they may be a strong push to the development of GALS systems, through their multiple available tools that comprise a graphical editor, a simulator and automatic code generation tools, namely a VHDL (VHSIC Hardware Description Language) code generator. In order to facilitate the implementation of said GALS system in the IOPT-Flow framework, some components were created, these work together to form asynchronous interfaces that are a crucial element to any GALS system, thus providing options to designers that intent to develop a GALS system utilizing the IOPT-Flow framework.