Differences

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--- history:start [2023/02/26 13:35] – rajit
+++ history:start [2025/01/27 12:16] (current) – rajit
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 ====== Language history ======
-This is a rough chronology of the development/evolution of ACT.
+This is a rough chronology of the development/evolution of ACT and influences from the literature.
    * 1975 E.W. Dijkstra's paper on a guarded command language appears in CACM
@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 Language development:
-   * ~1991 (?), a language for hierarchical production rules was developed at Caltech (A.J. Martin's group). This was dubbed "CAST" for Caltech Asynchronous Synthesis Tools. A snippet of a circuit in this language is shown below:
+   * ~1991 (?), a language for hierarchical production rules was developed at Caltech (A.J. Martin's group) based on their experience with designing the first asynchronous microprocessor. This was dubbed "CAST" for Caltech Asynchronous Synthesis Tools. A snippet of a circuit in this language is shown below:
 <code>
 define prs (a)f()
@@ Line 19: / Line 19: @@
 cell (_)f()
 </code>
-   * 1995, a new CAST language ({{ :history:cast.pdf |docs}}) was developed from scratch and implemented by [[http://csl.yale.edu/~rajit|Rajit Manohar]] (at the time a graduate student in A.J. Martin's group).
+   * 1995, a new CAST language ({{ :history:cast.pdf |docs}}) was developed from scratch and implemented by [[http://csl.yale.edu/~rajit|Rajit Manohar]] (at the time a graduate student in A.J. Martin's group). The same example as above would be written as follows in the new CAST syntax
+<code>
+define f (node a)
+{  node p, q;
+   prs {
+       p -> q+
+    }
+   a = p;
+ }
+f();
+</code>
    * 1995-1998 CAST was used to implement the [[https://csl.yale.edu/~rajit/ps/minimips.pdf|first high-performance asynchronous microprocessor]].
    * ~1998 Andrew Lines and Uri Cummings from Martin's group at Caltech launch startup Asynchronous Digital Design (later renamed to Fulcrum Microsystems), which licenses the tools developed at Caltech. Over the years, Fulcrum develops more CAST tools for internal commercial use, including proprietary language extensions.
@@ Line 25: / Line 35: @@
    * 1998-2003 Development continued at Caltech, including embedding CAST-like syntax within the Modula-3 language. This version was used to design the Lutonium processor.
    * 2004 A language that provided the same functionality as CAST but with syntax for new features (not implemented) was developed at Cornell by Rajit Manohar, based on lessons from using CAST for chip design. This was called ACT (version 0; 0 because the new features were not supported yet)
-   * 2005-2008 ACT v0 was used by Achronix Semiconductor, a startup company founded by Rajit Manohar along with some of his Ph.D. students.
+   * 2005-2008 ACT v0 was used by Achronix Semiconductor, a startup company founded by Rajit Manohar along with some of his Ph.D. students. The same example above would be specified as follows in ACT v0.
+<code>
+defproc f (bool a)
+{  bool p, q;
+   prs {
+       p -> q+
+    }
+   a = p;
+ }
+f dummy;
+</code>
    * 2005-2010 An open-source (GPLed) implementation of an ACT v0 variant (called "HACKT") was developed by David Fang (student in Rajit Manohar's group) as part of his Ph.D. dissertation.
    * 2005-2014: ACT was used to implement a large number of asynchronous chips, including microprocessors, FPGAs, a GPS baseband engine, digital circuits in continuous-time signal processing hardware, neuromorphic hardware, etc.
@@ Line 32: / Line 52: @@
    * 2012, Intel acquires Fulcrum Microsystems, as well as the version of the CAST tools developed by Fulcrum.
    * 2017, actual implementation of the new features started at Yale with a fresh implementation of the entire system.
-   * 2018, Most features of ACT v1 ready
+   * 2018, Most features of ACT v1 ready. The example above would be defined as follows:
+<code act>
+defproc f (bool? a)
+{  bool p, q;
+   prs {
+       p -> q+
+    }
+   a = p;
+ }
+f dummy;
+</code>
    * 1/2019, first [[http://github.com/asyncvlsi/act|open-source release]]
    * 4/2019, documentation effort initiated
-   * 2019, first prototype of static timing analysis for asynchronous logic
-   * 2020, support for LEF/DEF exports
-   * 2020, first prototype of ''chp2prs'' (syntax-directed translation)
+ACT Language features (current version):
-   * 2020-2022, placement and routing flow developed
+  * 1/2019: support for production rules and netlist generation
-   * 2020-2022, dataflow synthesis flow developed
-   * 2021-2023, timing-driven flow developed