General conditions for the decomposition of state holding elements

Abstract

A fundamental problem in the design of speed-independent asynchronous circuits is the decomposition or splitting up of high-fanin operators into two or more lower-fanin operators. In this paper, we develop general techniques to decided whether a particular decomposition of an arbitrary state-holding or combinational element into two elements with an belated internal signal is correct. These techniques are extended to determine efficiently all legal decompositions in a parameterized family.