40 Years of Computing at Newcastle
Department Technical Report Series No. 570
An Open Question - Will the Properties of Electromigration and Thermomigration have an Adverse Effect on the Future of Asynchronous Logic Design?
L. Lloyd
University of Newcastle upon Tyne. 1997.
Abstract
The question is asked whether or not Electromigration and/or Thermomigration, phenomena that are both well known to cause the degradation of the physical structure of electronic circuits, will have serious consequences for the future research, development and application of asynchronous logic devices.
A non-rigorous answer to this question is presented that describes how the nature of asynchronous design, which in only performing useful work when processing actions dictate, will have the effect of causing temperature discontinuities to arise in that logic. This is precisely a factor that increases the rate at which electromigration and thermomigration effects are known to occur and therefore must have serious implications for the lifetime operability of asynchronous devices as opposed to equivalent synchronous machines.
A comparison is made between two hypothetical processors, one synchronous the other asynchronous, in order to support this argument.
Department Technical Report Series - 1997
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Technical Report Abstract No. 570, 30 June 1997