Higher order logic and hardware verification / T. Melham.

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

1. Hardware Verification. 1.1. The hardware verification method. 1.2. Limitations of hardware verification. 1.3. Abstraction. 1.4. Hardware verification using higher order logic -- 2. Higher Order Logic and the HOL System. 2.1. Types. 2.2. Terms. 2.3. Sequents, theorems and inference rules. 2.4. Constant definitions. 2.5. The primitive constant [epsilon]. 2.6. Recursive definitions. 2.7. Type definitions. 2.8. The HOL system -- 3. Hardware Verification using Higher Order Logic. 3.1. Specifying hardware behaviour. 3.2. Deriving behaviour from structure. 3.3. Formulating correctness. 3.4. An example correctness proof. 3.5. Other approaches -- 4. Abstraction. 4.1. Abstraction within a model. 4.2. Two problems. 4.3. Abstraction in practice. 4.4. Validity conditions. 4.5. A notation for correctness. 4.6. Abstraction and hierarchical verification. 4.7. Abstraction between models. 4.8. Other approaches -- 5. Data Abstraction. 5.1. Defining concrete types in logic. 5.2. An example: a transistor model.

5.3. An example of data abstraction. 5.4. Reasoning about hardware using bit-vectors. 5.5. Reasoning about tree-shaped circuits. 5.6. Other approaches -- 6. Temporal Abstraction. 6.1. Temporal abstraction by sampling. 6.2. An example: abstracting to unit delay. 6.3. A synchronizing temporal abstraction. 6.4. A case study: the T-ring. 6.5. Other approaches -- 7. Abstraction between Models. 7.1. Representing the structure of CMOS circuits. 7.2. Defining the semantics of CMOS circuits. 7.3. Defining satisfaction. 7.4. Correctness in the two models. 7.5. Relating the models. 7.6. Improving the results. 7.7. Other approaches.

This 1993 book shows how formal logic can be used to specify the behaviour of hardware designs and reason about their correctness. A primary theme of the book is the use of abstraction in hardware specification and verification. The author describes how certain fundamental abstraction mechanisms for hardware verification can be formalised in logic and used to express assertions about design correctness and the relative accuracy of models of hardware behaviour. His approach is pragmatic and driven by examples. He also includes an introduction to higher-order logic, which is a widely used formalism in this subject, and describes how that formalism is actually used for hardware verification. The book is based in part on the author's own research as well as on graduate teaching. Thus it can be used to accompany courses on hardware verification and as a resource for research workers.