1 Jan
2018
1 Jan
'18
12:29 p.m.
On 01/01/2018 12:00 PM, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
"Asychronous" does not mean the clock is
skewed, it means the system operates without a clock -- instead relying either on worst
case delays or on explicit completion signals. That used to be done at times. The Unibus
is a classis example of an asynchronous bus, and I suppose there are others from that era.
The only asynchronous computer I can think of is the Dutch ARRA 1, which is notorious for
only ever executing one significant program successfully for that reason. Its successor
(ARRA 2) was a conventional synchronous design.
I'm not certain, but I believe that the Philco System 2000 had parts of
the CPU that operated asynchronously. At least that's what my failing
wetware seems to indicate.
--Chuck