In this work, Asynchrobatic Logic is presented. It is a novel low-power
design style that combines the energy saving benefits of asynchronous logic
and adiabatic logic to produce systems whose power dissipation is reduced in
several different ways. The term “Asynchrobatic” is a new word that can be
used to describe these types of systems, and is derived from the
concatenation and shortening of Asynchronous, Adiabatic Logic. This thesis
introduces the concept and theory behind Asynchrobatic Logic. It first
provides an introductory background to both underlying parent technologies
(asynchronous logic and adiabatic logic). The background material continues
with an explanation of a number of possible methods for designing complex
data-path cells used in the adiabatic data-path. Asynchrobatic Logic is then
introduced as a comparison between asynchronous and Asynchrobatic buffer
chains, showing that for wide systems, it operates more efficiently. Two
more-complex sub-systems are presented, firstly a layout implementation of
the substitution boxes from the Twofish encryption algorithm, and secondly a
front-end only (without parasitic capacitances, resistances) simulation that
demonstrates a functional system capable of calculating the Greatest
Common Denominator (GCD) of a pair of 16-bit unsigned integers, which
under typical conditions on a 0.35μm process, executed a test vector requiring
twenty-four iterations in 2.067μs with a power consumption of 3.257nW.
These examples show that the concept of Asynchrobatic Logic has the
potential to be used in real-world applications, and is not just theory without
application. At the time of its first publication in 2004, Asynchrobatic Logic
was both unique and ground-breaking, as this was the first time that
consideration had been given to operating large-scale adiabatic logic in an
asynchronous fashion, and the first time that Asynchronous Stepwise
Charging (ASWC) had been used to drive an adiabatic data-path
