https://avlsi.csl.yale.edu/act/ 2026-08-24T13:13:13+00:00 https://avlsi.csl.yale.edu/act/ https://avlsi.csl.yale.edu/act/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=wiki:logo.png text/html 2026-08-11T14:18:34+00:00 dnonaca (dnonaca@undisclosed.example.com) https://avlsi.csl.yale.edu/act/doku.php?id=asic:timing:xcell:start&rev=1786457914&do=diff xcell: A cell library characterizer xcell is a cell library characterizer. It takes in a configuration file (xcell.conf) and an ACT file that is used to provide the list of cells to be characterized, and runs a large number of SPICE simulations to generate timing and energy tables in the text/html 2026-08-09T13:23:04+00:00 rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) https://avlsi.csl.yale.edu/act/doku.php?id=language:migrate&rev=1786281784&do=diff Migration guide If you have previously used ACT (versions from 2006 to 2018), there are a few minor changes that clean up the language and make the syntax more consistent. There are also some new features that you might find helpful that simplify describing circuits in ACT. text/html 2026-08-09T13:10:28+00:00 rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) https://avlsi.csl.yale.edu/act/doku.php?id=language:types2&rev=1786281028&do=diff User-defined types User-defined type can be used to create complex circuit structures. A new user-defined type name is introduced by using defproc, defcell, defchan, or deftype statements. All user-defined types have the same basic structure: * a type signature, that provides information about the interface to the type and the ports that are externally visible; and text/html 2026-08-08T13:48:22+00:00 rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) https://avlsi.csl.yale.edu/act/doku.php?id=tools:netgen&rev=1786196902&do=diff prs2net: automated netlist generation The tool prs2net can be used to automatically generate a hierarchical spice netlist from an .act file. Parameters that control defaults and the output format are specified in a configuration file. The overall way the tool works is as follows. First, it reads in the text/html 2026-08-07T11:19:06+00:00 rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) https://avlsi.csl.yale.edu/act/doku.php?id=language:types2:data&rev=1786101546&do=diff User-defined data types A user-defined data type is defined using deftype. These are classified into two categories: * data types, which correspond to representations of the built-in int and bool types. * structures, which are a collection of data types. text/html 2026-08-06T10:44:06+00:00 rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) https://avlsi.csl.yale.edu/act/doku.php?id=guide:start&rev=1786013046&do=diff A Guide to Using ACT Data Structures Getting Started Initialization Act configuration files are read in and any ACT command-line options are parsed and removed from the argument list automatically when the library is initialized as: Act::Init (&argc, &argv); text/html 2026-08-06T10:40:39+00:00 rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) https://avlsi.csl.yale.edu/act/doku.php?id=thank&rev=1786012839&do=diff Internal Contributors Members of the asynchronous VLSI and architecture group have been making numerous contributions to the code base. Some have implemented key pieces of the toolflow; others are regular users and have found innumerable bugs and limitations that triggered improvements to the code base and enhancements to functionality. The contributors have been: text/html 2026-08-05T19:57:29+00:00 rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) https://avlsi.csl.yale.edu/act/doku.php?id=intro_example:assist&rev=1785959849&do=diff AI Assistants Users that have been using coding agents with ACT have contributed the following: * Ruiqi “Richard” Niu from Johns Hopkins has created skills for LLM agents to write ACT. This was developed during the 2026 Telluride Neuromorphic AI Workshop as part of the work in the RobNIC group (Robotics and Neuromorphic Integrated Circuits). text/html 2026-08-05T15:30:55+00:00 rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) https://avlsi.csl.yale.edu/act/doku.php?id=language:impl&rev=1785943855&do=diff The Implementation relation When types are created using either deftype or defchan, they are defined as the implementation of a type. This is also possible for processes defined using defproc. Implementation The implementation relation is used to specify the precise implementation of a data or channel type. The most straightforward mechanism to specify a channel is to say that it is the implementation of a built-in data type. In the example in the text/html 2026-08-05T14:59:01+00:00 rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) https://avlsi.csl.yale.edu/act/doku.php?id=history:start&rev=1785941941&do=diff Language history This is a rough chronology of the influences from the literature on the ACT language. * 1975 E.W. Dijkstra's paper on a guarded command language appears in CACM * 1978 C.A.R. Hoare's paper on CSP appears in CACM * 1986 A.J. Martin describes an approach to translating communicating processes into asynchronous circuits in a text/html 2026-07-27T09:45:11+00:00 rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) https://avlsi.csl.yale.edu/act/doku.php?id=language:langs:chp&rev=1785145511&do=diff The chp sublanguage The CHP sublanguage is an evolution of Dijkstra's guarded commands notation and Hoare's CSP. It is a programming notation augmented with send/receive primitives for communication and parallel composition. A chp program is specified in ACT as follows: text/html 2026-07-26T21:45:55+00:00 rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) https://avlsi.csl.yale.edu/act/doku.php?id=config:runtime&rev=1785102355&do=diff ACT Runtime Configuration The behavior of the core ACT library and the way an ACT file is interpreted is typically controlled by command-line options to specific tools. However, there are some common settings that can be selected using a local ACT configuration file and then passed to the ACT tool using the text/html 2026-07-26T20:36:50+00:00 rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) https://avlsi.csl.yale.edu/act/doku.php?id=stdoptions:start&rev=1785098210&do=diff Common options Command-line flags ACT tools that use the core act library all accept the following command-line options. These options should come first, before any tool-specific options: * -Ttechname: changes the technology configuration files to techname. This specifies that the config files are in directory text/html 2026-07-26T12:44:18+00:00 rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) https://avlsi.csl.yale.edu/act/doku.php?id=asic:cells:start&rev=1785069858&do=diff Mapping a design to a cell library For the ASIC flow, each production rule in the design is mapped to a cell. Cells are simply special processes that are used to specify the leaf cells in the layout generation flow. ACT assumes that each cell has associated with it some layout and an associated LEF file. Cells are specified using the same syntax as a process, but using text/html 2026-07-13T11:48:51+00:00 rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) https://avlsi.csl.yale.edu/act/doku.php?image=summer2026%3Aday2.tar.gz&ns=summer2026&rev=1783943331&tab_details=history&media_do=diff&do=media <img src="https://avlsi.csl.yale.edu/act/lib/images/fileicons/svg/gz.svg" alt="day2.tar.gz" loading="lazy" width="500" height="500" /> text/html 2026-07-13T11:48:11+00:00 rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) https://avlsi.csl.yale.edu/act/doku.php?image=summer2026%3Aday1.tar.gz&ns=summer2026&rev=1783943291&tab_details=history&media_do=diff&do=media <img src="https://avlsi.csl.yale.edu/act/lib/images/fileicons/svg/gz.svg" alt="day1.tar.gz" loading="lazy" width="500" height="500" /> text/html 2026-06-25T17:58:13+00:00 rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) https://avlsi.csl.yale.edu/act/doku.php?image=summer2026%3A14_customckts.mp4&ns=summer2026&rev=1782410293&tab_details=history&media_do=diff&do=media <img src="https://avlsi.csl.yale.edu/act/lib/images/fileicons/svg/mp4.svg" alt="14_customckts.mp4" loading="lazy" width="500" height="500" /> text/html 2026-06-25T17:53:17+00:00 rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) https://avlsi.csl.yale.edu/act/doku.php?image=summer2026%3A13_petrinets.mp4&ns=summer2026&rev=1782409997&tab_details=history&media_do=diff&do=media <img src="https://avlsi.csl.yale.edu/act/lib/images/fileicons/svg/mp4.svg" alt="13_petrinets.mp4" loading="lazy" width="500" height="500" /> text/html 2026-06-25T17:35:18+00:00 rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) https://avlsi.csl.yale.edu/act/doku.php?image=summer2026%3A12_asic2.mp4&ns=summer2026&rev=1782408918&tab_details=history&media_do=diff&do=media <img src="https://avlsi.csl.yale.edu/act/lib/images/fileicons/svg/mp4.svg" alt="12_asic2.mp4" loading="lazy" width="500" height="500" /> text/html 2026-06-25T17:26:54+00:00 rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) https://avlsi.csl.yale.edu/act/doku.php?image=summer2026%3A11_asic1.mp4&ns=summer2026&rev=1782408414&tab_details=history&media_do=diff&do=media <img src="https://avlsi.csl.yale.edu/act/lib/images/fileicons/svg/mp4.svg" alt="11_asic1.mp4" loading="lazy" width="500" height="500" />