A low latency asynchronous Jenkins hash engine for IP lookup

Hash computation is an important component of many high speed network devices that employ them for longest prefix matching. With growing line rates it is essential that this critic l component be implemented in hardware to reduce both power and latency. In this paper, we focus on the issue of latency. Null Convention Logic (NCL) is a popular asynchronous design technique that is known to offer robustness to PVT variability as well as potential speed and power advantages. We propose and analyse a NCL implementation of the popular non-cryptographic Jenkins hash algorithm and compare it against an equivalent clocked synchronous implementation, demonstrating a 5x improvement in latency for the same average throughput.