MINIMALIST: An Environment for the Synthesis, Verification and Testability of Burst-Mode Asynchronous Machines
Columbia University Computer Science Dept.
Tech Report #CUCS-020-99

Robert M. Fuhrer*Steven M. Nowick¹Michael Theobald*
Niraj K. Jha$\dagger$Bill Lin$\ddagger$Luis Plana*

¹ This research was funded in part by NSF CAREER Award MIP-9501880, NSF RIA grant MIP-9308810, NSF grant CCR-97-34803, by a supplement to NSF MIP-9501880 for CAD software tool development and by an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship.

*Dept. of Computer Sci.
Columbia University
New York, NY 10027

$\dagger$Dept. of Electrical Eng.
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08540

$\ddagger$Dept. of Elec. & Comp. Eng.
Univ. of Calif. at San Diego
La Jolla, CA 92093

Abstract:

MINIMALIST is a new extensible environment for the synthesis and verification of burst-mode asynchronous finite-state machines. MINIMALIST embodies a complete technology-independent synthesis path, with state-of-the-art exact and heuristic asynchronous synthesis algorithms, e.g. optimal state assignment (CHASM), two-level hazard-free logic minimization (HFMIN, ESPRESSO-HF, and IMPYMIN), and synthesis-for-testability. Unlike other asynchronous synthesis packages, MINIMALIST also offers many options: literal vs. product optimization, single- vs. multi-output logic minimization, using vs. not using fed-back outputs as state variables, and exploring varied code lengths during state assignment, thus allowing the designer to explore trade-offs and select the implementation style which best suits the application. MINIMALIST benchmark results demonstrate its ability to produce implementations with an average of 34% and up to 48% less area, and an average of 11% and up to 37% better performance, than the best existing package [34]. Our synthesis-for-testability method guarantees 100% testability under both stuck-at and robust path delay fault models, requiring little or no overhead. MINIMALIST also features both command-line and graphic user interfaces, and supports extension via well-defined interfaces for adding new tools. As such, it is easily augmented to form a complete path to technology-dependent logic.