This rather specialized paper is intended for those ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits) designers who are interested in an alternative method of designing a class of ASIC the author calls low-complexity, low-power RISC-like industrial controllers. Piguet goes into considerable detail in outlining the theoretical background of his design approach, pointing out some of the different design and implementation approaches to the RISC and CISC (complex instruction set computer). Over half of the paper is spent explaining how to arrive at the binary-decision machine (BDM) approach. The author provides high-level architectures for two BDM chips that have been implemented as industrial controllers (specifically, as watch processors). He perceives these designs as more easily implemented than those 4-bit or 8-bit specialized microprocessors other designers tend to use for this type of ASICs, using the traditional CISC design methodology.

Thus, by working with the BDM model and the less complicated design techniques for RISC instead of the more complex CISC design method, the author shows that using the CAD system called Aladdin, he can automate the design of a RISC-like processor with up to 5,000 transistors on a chip, so it takes the same amount of time as a 1,000-transistor chip did 10 years ago. The paper has 19 references for those who want to dig into the subject further.