The ACT VLSI design tools

install_actflow

rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-09-14T21:33:15+00:00

Installing actflow Primary development of the tools in the actflow repository is conducted on Linux and MacOS, and so it has been extensively tested on such systems. It has also been tested in certain Windows environments (see below). If you are a Homebrew user, check out the

expressions - [Idiosyncrasies]

rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-09-13T12:53:49+00:00

Expressions Expression syntax in ACT is similar to expressions in the C language. * Integer expressions: operators that are supported include +, -, *, /, and % for integer arithmetic operations, and &, |, and ~ for bit-wise logical operations between integers.

start - [Command-line flags]

rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-09-13T12:11:55+00:00

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

runtime - [Warnings]

rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-09-13T12:09:45+00:00

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

generic - [Generic configuration settings]

rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-09-13T12:07:43+00:00

General technology configuration General technology configuration information is stored in global.conf. This file contains information that doesn't depend on most of the details of the technology provided by the foundry. The only item here that could be viewed as technology-specific corresponds to the transistor flavors supported (i.e. different thresholds, I/O transistors, etc). We normally use a fixed set of names for these transistor flavors in the ACT file, independent of technology.

dockersetup - [Standard image setup]

rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-09-09T12:17:33+00:00

Docker image and container setup We have provided a Docker image that has all the standard tools we use pre-installed. If you are unfamilar with Docker/containers, there are many online tutorials available (e.g. here). Essentially Docker provides a lightweight

start - [Design tools]

rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-08-29T13:41:15+00:00

ASYNC 2026 Summer School The 3rd edition of the ASYNC Summer school will be co-located directly before the conference (June 1-2 2026) as a hybrid event at DTU in Lyngby, Denmark. The goal of the school is to teach asynchronous chip design to students and practitioners interested in digital hardware design. Participants will learn how to design asynchronous circuits at the behavioral level, gate level, and physical design level using design automation tools.

start - [Design tools]

rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-08-29T13:40:57+00:00

ASYNC 2024 Summer School Welcome to the ASYNC 2024 Summer School! This is the second summer school on asynchronous design. We will be following the format of the ASYNC 2022 Summer School, with videos and slides posted online. (If the video is not visible when you click on the link, try downloading the file and viewing it locally. The videos play on the open-source VLC player, for example.)

dockersetup - removed

rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-08-29T13:40:26+00:00

start - [Installation]

rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-08-29T13:38:23+00:00

The ACT VLSI Design Tools Welcome to the Wiki for the ACT suite of VLSI design tools. ACT is an Asynchronous Circuit Toolkit which has been built from scratch to support the design and implementation of asynchronous logic. While that is the main goal, the tools we have developed also support synchronous logic as a special case. These tools have been developed primarily by

day2.tar.gz - created

rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-07-13T11:48:51+00:00

day1.tar.gz - created

rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-07-13T11:48:11+00:00

14_customckts.mp4 - created

rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-06-25T17:58:13+00:00

13_petrinets.mp4 - created

rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-06-25T17:53:17+00:00

12_asic2.mp4 - created

rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-06-25T17:35:18+00:00

11_asic1.mp4 - created

rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-06-25T17:26:54+00:00

10_timing.mp4 - created

rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-06-25T17:21:10+00:00

08_nondet.mp4 - created

rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-06-25T17:19:24+00:00

07_chptogates.mp4 - created

rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-06-25T17:19:04+00:00

06_dataflowcircuits.mp4 - created

rajit (rajit@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-06-25T17:18:45+00:00