We discuss number representations for width-adaptive data word
architectures. The number representations are self-delimiting,
permitting asynchronous implementations with dynamic width adaptivity
and reduced energy-complexity. We describe how these architectures can
be realized with asynchronous VLSI techniques, and show that they
exhibit better energy and throughput characteristics than traditional
asynchronous implementations. We study some of the tradeoffs in the
design of this class of architectures.
