Modular, asynchronous control structures for a high performance processor

This note has been prepared to provide examples of the use of Petri nets [1] for the description of the control mechanisms of a complex computer, and of the relation between Petri nets and modular, asynchronous control structures [2, 3] that realize them. We hope that familiarity with such examples will lead to understanding of the problem of translating a Petri net specification into an efficient digital system. The example also shows that Petri nets, and asynchronous circuits assembled from the few module types introduced below, are suitable for expressing all control functions found in high performance computer systems.