How to get started in asynchronus design?

[asgard20032]

I want to start experimenting in the asynchronous design field, but how to get started? Is there any simulator, FPGA like device to experiment?

My ultimate goal would be to design a 4 bit or 8 bit cpu asynchronous, just for the fun of doing it and learning.

[rstofer]

You can model combinatorial logic in a CPLD or FPGA.  What you probably can't do is make sequential circuits operate asynchronously.  I would think that state machines are out of the question.  I know a fellow who tried to reinvent a CPU using asynchronous logic but he ultimately failed.  In the old days of transistor logic, gate delays were long and easier to deal with.  A lot of timing was done with wire length.

An ALU, itself, is a combinatorial block, no problems with it being asynchronous.  Registering the output is a different matter.

[Dave]

You could download something like Xilinx ISE/Vivado or Altera Quartus and just use their simulators. You can then always shove your designs into actual FPGAs at a later time.