Trace Theory And Vlsi Design

Recent research on the physical technologies of very large scale integration (VLSI).

Computer-Aided Verification is a collection of papers that begins with a general survey of hardware verification methods. Ms. Gupta starts with the issue of verification itself and develops a taxonomy of verification methodologies, focusing especially upon recent advances. Although her emphasis is hardware verification, most of what she reports applies to software verification as well. Graphical presentation is coming to be a de facto requirement for a `friendly' user interface. The second paper presents a generic format for graphical presentations of coordinating systems represented by automata. The last two papers as a pair, present a variety of generic techniques for reducing the computational cost of computer-aided verification based upon explicit computational memory: the first of the two gives a time-space trade-off, while the second gives a technique which trades space for a (sometimes predictable) probability of error. Computer-Aided Verification is an edited volume of original research. This research work has also been published as a special issue of the journal Formal Methods in System Design, 1:2-3.

Speed-independent circuits offer a potential solution to the timing problems of VLSI. In this book David Dill develops and implements a theory for practical automatic verification of these control circuits. He describes a formal model of circuit operation, defines the proper relationship between an implementation and its specification, and constructs a computer program that can check this relationship.Asynchronous or speed-independent circuit design has gained renewed interest in the VLSI community because of the possibilities it provides for dealing with problems that arise with the increasing complexity of VLSI circuits. Speed-independent circuits offer a way around such phenomena as clock skew, which can be a serious obstacle in the design of large systems. They can expedite circuit design by reducing design time and simplifying the overall process.A major challenge to the successful utilization of speed-independent circuits is correctness. The verification method described here insures that a design is correct and because it can be automated it is a significant advantage over manual verification. Dill proposes two distinct theories - prefix-closed trace structures, which can model and specify safety properties, and complete trace structures, which can also deal with liveness and fairness properties.David L. Dill received his doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University and is Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University. Trace Theory for Automatic Hierarchical Verification of Speed Independent Circuits is a 1988 ACM Distinguished Dissertation

This book is the result of a long friendship, of a broad international co operation, and of a bold dream. It is the summary of work carried out by the authors, and several other wonderful people, during more than 15 years, across 3 continents, in the course of countless meetings, workshops and discus sions. It shows that neither language nor distance can be an obstacle to close scientific cooperation, when there is unity of goals and true collaboration. When we started, we had very different approaches to handling the mys terious, almost magical world of asynchronous circuits. Some were more theo retical, some were closer to physical reality, some were driven mostly by design needs. In the end, we all shared the same belief that true Electronic Design Automation research must be solidly grounded in formal models, practically minded to avoid excessive complexity, and tested "in the field" in the form of experimental tools. The results are this book, and the CAD tool petrify. The latter can be downloaded and tried by anybody bold (or desperate) enough to tread into the clockless (but not lawless) domain of small-scale asynchronicity. The URL is http://www.lsi. upc. esr j ordic/petrify. We believe that asynchronous circuits are a wonderful object, that aban dons some of the almost militaristic law and order that governs synchronous circuits, to improve in terms of simplicity, energy efficiency and performance.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Application and Theory of Petri Nets, held in Torino, Italy in June 1995 The 26 revised refereed papers presented were selected from 73 submissions from 22 countries; in addition there are abstracts or full papers of the three invited talks. All theoretical and applicational aspects are addressed by the contributors coming from industry and academia. This volume representatively documents the progress achieved in this application-oriented area of research and development since the predecessor conference held one year earlier.

This volume is the first of the three volume publication containing the proceedings of the 1989 International Symposium on the Mathematical Theory of Networks and Systems (MTNS-89), which was held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, June 19-23, 1989. The International Symposia MTNS focus attention on problems from system and control theory, circuit theory and signal processing, which, in general, require application of sophisticated mathematical tools, such as from function and operator theory, linear algebra and matrix theory, differential and algebraic geometry. The interaction between advanced mathematical methods and practical engineering problems of circuits, systems and control, which is typical for MTNS, turns out to be most effective and is, as these proceedings show, a continuing source of exciting advances. The first volume contains invited papers and a large selection of other symposium presentations on the general theory of deterministic and stochastic systems with an emphasis on realization and modelling. A wide variety of recent results on approximate realization and system identification, stochastic dynamical systems, discrete event systems,- o systems, singular systems and nonstandard models IS presented. Preface vi Also a few papers on applications in hydrology and hydraulics are included. The titles of the two other volumes are: Robust Control of Linear Sys tems and Nonlinear Control (volume 2) and Signal Processing. Scatter ing and Operator Theory. and Numerical Methods (volume 3). The Editors are most grateful to the about 300 reviewers for their help in the refereeing process. The Editors thank Ms. G. Bijleveld and Ms.