Multiclock Esterel: a reactive framework for asynchronous design

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss a new paradigm called Multiclock Esterel, based on the paradigm of the synchronous reactive language, Esterel, used for reactive systems and synchronous circuit design. We show that the Multiclock Esterel paradigm provides a general framework for the design of systems with multiple local clocks and the earlier paradigm of CRP (Communicating Reactive Processes) can be obtained as an instance of the newly proposed paradigm. Furthermore, it preserves the advantages of the classical Esterel paradigm and thus benefits from the advantages of verifiability of specifications/models. Multiclock Esterel provides a formal basis for designing asynchronous circuits and provides a succinct unification of synchrony and asynchrony.