An asynchronous version of the ARM7 processor has now been completed by a team at Manchester University and the design is on its way to a foundry, where it will eventually be put into volume production. The developers are sworn to secrecy on where the processor will be used, other than it is related to digital communications. But the European Union funded project will now be extended to contactless smart cards, where power consumption is a crucial factor.
Asynchronous processors achieve power savings by ditching the clock, which has dominated recent design in the industry. In a synchronous processor, many gates switch because they are connected to the clock rather than have new inputs to process, using power and generating heat.
ARM Holdings Plc, which owns the intellectual property rights to the new design, is cautious on the extent to which it will become involved in asynchronous design. One problem for any company like ARM is that its design team has been brought up on synchronous designs, and to retrain them in a novel area would be a risky undertaking.
The Manchester project, known as Amulet3, is believed to be the first asynchronous implementation of an existing processor and researchers say the design delivers about 100 MIPS. It is part of a growing research project in Europe into asynchronous design. The development of new wireless devices in particular, make the development of low power processors essential.
