The Balsa Asynchronous Synthesis System 3.5

Balsa is an asynchronous circuit synthesis system developed over a number of years at the APT group of the School Of Computer Science, The University of Manchester.

Balsa is built around the Handshake Circuits methology and can generate gate level netlists from high-level descriptions in the Balsa language. Both dual-rail (QDI) and single-rail (bundled data) circuits can be generated.

The approach adopted by Balsa is that of syntax-directed compilation into communicating handshaking components and closely follows the Tangram system of Philips. The advantage of this approach is that the compilation is transparent: there is a one-to-one mapping between the language constructs in the specification and the intermediate handshake circuits that are produced. It is relatively easy for an experienced user to envisage the architecture of the circuit that results from the original description. Incremental changes made at the language level result in predictable changes at the circuit implementation level.