Code to go with publication "An Asynchronous Bit-Serial Variable-Length Address-Event Codec with Relative Addressing", Bamford and Bartolozzi, 2024. IIT-EDPR Admins: this repo should remain here in perpetuity.
To run this code, first install ACT from this repository (which requires a linux installation), following its own instructions: https://github.com/asyncvlsi/act
Then, to recreate the simulation results in the paper for the incrementer/encoder:
In the folder "incrementer", excute:
aflat test_incMerge.act > test_incMerge.prs
This will convert the act code to a production rule set.
Then execute:
prsim test_incMerge.prs
This will open the command ine of the prsim tool. From that command line, execute:
source src_incMerge.src
This will apply the instructions in the source file, which will first initialise the simulation and apply global reset signals, and will then provide a series of tokens to a chain of communication blocks, containing increment and merge. You will see a burst of output in the terminal as state transitions occur, which may last several seconds. Then you will be able to inspect the output file, called output_R.dec.
There is also a file corresponding to a chain of 8 communication blocks, for which the two files to use as above are:
prsim test_incMergeX8.prs
source src_incMergeX8.src
Back on the linux command line, to generate a netlist, which you could use for onward simulations in spice, execute:
prs2net -p 'incMerge<>' test_incMerge.act
To test the code in the "decrementer" folder, the corresponding instructions are:
aflat test_dec.act > test_dec.prs
prsim test_dec.prs
source src_dec.src
prs2net -p 'dec<>' test_dec.act
This will produce two output files; one for the downstream communications blocks, called output_R.dec, and one for the local event receiver, called output_T.dec.
A snowball gains size and momentum as it rolls down a hill; the name is a metaphor for the events moving through the incrementer chain.