Precise exception handling for a self-timed processor

Abstract

Self-timed systems structured as multiple concurrent processes and communicating through self-timed queues are a convenient way to implement decoupled computer architectures. Machines of this type can exploit instruction level parallelism in a natural way, and can be easily modified and extended. However, providing a precise exception model for a self-timed micropipelined processor can be difficult, since the processor state does not change at uniformly discrete intervals. We present a precise exception method implemented for Fred, a self-timed, decoupled, pipelined computer architecture with out-of-order instruction completion.