Asynchronous loadable down counter

A method for operating a down counter, comprising:

• receiving an input, wherein the input is n digits in length and wherein each digit is a base-k digit;
• storing the input into an array of cells;
• at each cell in the array, borrowing asynchronously from a more significant adjacent cell to increase a value of the digit in the cell;
• and
• iteratively decrementing the contents of the array, wherein each iteration involves:
• decrementing a least significant cell;
• and
• wherein the asynchronous borrowing concurrently decrements more significant cells in the array.

A computer system for counting iterations, comprising:

• a processor;
• a memory;
• and
• a down counter configured as an array of cells, wherein each cell in the array is configured to hold a digit in a redundant base-k representation of a number contained in the array of cells;
• wherein each cell comprises a finite state machine that defines state transitions between states, wherein states are held on wires and state transitions are synchronized between adjacent cells;
• and
• wherein each cell is configured to asynchronously borrow from a more significant adjacent cell to increase a value of a digit in the cell, wherein the asynchronous borrowing improves performance by ensuring that a decrement operation, which decrements a digit in a least significant cell in the array, will borrow from an adjacent more significant cell, without having to wait for the completion of a rippling sequence of borrows from more significant cells.