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As technology evolves into the deep submicron level, synchronous circuit designs based on a single global clock have incurred problems in such areas as timing closure and power consumption. An asynchronous circuit design methodology is one of the strong candidates to solve such problems. To verify the feasibility and efficiency of a largescale asynchronous circuit, we design a fully clockless 32-bit processor. We model the processor using an asynchronous HDL and synthesize it using a tool specialized for asynchronous circuits with a top-down design approach. In this paper, two microarchitectures, basic and enhanced, are explored. The results from a pre-layout simulation utilizing 0.13-μm CMOS technology show that the performance and power consumption of the enhanced microarchitecture are respectively improved by 109% and 30% with respect to the basic architecture. Furthermore, the measured power efficiency is about 238 µW/MHz and is comparable to that of a synchronous counterpart.

Poly(butylene adipate-co-succinate) (PBAS), a saturated aliphatic polyester cured by dicumyl peroxide (DCP), was prepared and the viscoelastic property was investigated. The viscosity of crosslinked PBAS increased, and it exhibited rubbery behavior as the content of curing agent was increased. The results suggested that the viscosity and elasticity of PBAS could be regulated by adding a small amount of DCP; hence, the processibility could be improved. Prior to foaming, a proper formulation of blowing agent (blowing agent/urea activator = 100:8 phr) was examined to prepare expanded PBAS foam. Low-density PBAS expanded foams were prepared using a chemical blowing agent and DCP. The effect of the foaming temperature, additive content, and curing agent content on the blowing ratio and morphology of expanded PBAS foams was investigated. A closed-cell structure PBAS foam of high blowing ratio (density about 0.05 g/cm3) could be obtained by adding 3 phr DCP. To manufacture expanded PBAS foam under 0.1 g/cm3 using a chemical blowing agent, the storage modulus of the matrix polymer should exceed the loss modulus by enough to stabilize growing bubbles. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 81: 2443–2454, 2001