This book introduces a new level of abstraction that closes the gap between the textual specification of embedded systems and the executable model at the Electronic System Level (ESL). Readers will be enabled to operate at this new, Formal Specification Level (FSL), using models which not only allow significant verification tasks in this early stage of the design flow, but also can be extracted semi-automatically from the textual specification in an interactive manner. The authors explain how to use these verification tasks to check conceptual properties, e.g. whether requirements are in conflict, as well as dynamic behavior, in terms of execution traces.
Introduction to Hardware-Software Co-Design presents a number of issues of fundamental importance for the design of integrated hardware software products such as embedded, communication, and multimedia systems. This book is a comprehensive introduction to the fundamentals of hardware/software co-design. Co-design is still a new field but one which has substantially matured over the past few years. This book, written by leading international experts, covers all the major topics including: fundamental issues in co-design; hardware/software co-synthesis algorithms; prototyping and emulation; target architectures; compiler techniques; specification and verification; system-level specification. Special chapters describe in detail several leading-edge co-design systems including Cosyma, LYCOS, and Cosmos. Introduction to Hardware-Software Co-Design contains sufficient material for use by teachers and students in an advanced course of hardware/software co-design. It also contains extensive explanation of the fundamental concepts of the subject and the necessary background to bring practitioners up-to-date on this increasingly important topic.
Formal Specification provides the reader with a practical and versatile approach to constructing program specifications. It includes both model-based (Z/VDM) and algebraic (CLEAR) paradigms of specification and emphasizes the range of languages and approaches available. Its main advantage over other specification books is that is offers an unrivaled breadth of coverage of the area, encompassing all the recent important advances.
This text aims to provide an introduction to graph algorithms and data structures and an understanding of the basic properties of a broad range of fundamental graph algorithms. It is suitable for anyone with some basic programming concepts. It covers graph properties and types, graph search, directed graphs, minimal spanning trees, shortest paths, and networks.
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 10th International Conference of Z Users, ZUM'97, held in Reading, UK, in April 1997. The volume presents 18 revised full papers together with three invited presentations by internationally leading experts. The papers are organized into topical sections on real-time systems, tools, logic, system development, reactive systems, refinement, and applications. Also a select Z bibliography by Jonathan Bowen is added. All in all, the book competently reports the state-of-the-art in research and advanced applications of the Z notation.
The notion that program design is an engineering task alleviating the software crisis has been with us for about a decade. With the recognized advantages of obeying to certain software design disciplines, we are approaching the era of enforced system development standards which will ensure that end products will meet rigorous design requirements. On the one hand, advances in system architecture fUrther the application of system development standards to software and firmware design and production. On the other hand, the growth in complexity of future system architectures, in particular distri buted systems with their special problems of cooperation and parallelism, necessitate the use of rigorous specification and design techniques. In addition to hampering the design process, the lack of engineering techniques hinders research. In many cases, trial designs that are presented in abstract and informal terms do not force the de signer to face the full problem spectrum, and therefore may not sufficiently provide insight into the design process. To prepare for the forthcoming discipline and to provide a snapshot view of recent advances in software and firmware engineering, we organized in June of 1979 a seminar entitled: "The Use of Formal Specification of Software and Firmware". The seminar took place at the Heinrich-Hertz-Institute, Berlin, and attracted over 60 participants, most of them from the industry.
1 In a number of recent presentations – most notably at FME’96 –oneofthe foremost scientists in the ?eld of formal methods, C.A.R. Hoare,has highlighted the fact that formal methods are not the only technique for producing reliable software. This seems to have caused some controversy,not least amongst formal methods practitioners. How can one of the founding fathers of formal methods seemingly denounce the ?eld of research after over a quarter of a century of support? This is a question that has been posed recently by some formal methods skeptics. However, Prof. Hoare has not abandoned formal methods. He is reiterating, 2 albeitmoreradically,his1987view thatmorethanonetoolandnotationwillbe requiredinthepractical,industrialdevelopmentoflarge-scalecomplexcomputer systems; and not all of these tools and notations will be, or even need be, formal in nature. Formalmethods arenotasolution,butratheroneofaselectionoftechniques that have proven to be useful in the development of reliable complex systems, and to result in hardware and software systems that can be produced on-time and within a budget, while satisfying the stated requirements. After almostthree decades,the time has come to view formalmethods in the context of overall industrial-scale system development, and their relationship to othertechniquesandmethods.Weshouldnolongerconsidertheissueofwhether we are “pro-formal” or “anti-formal”, but rather the degree of formality (if any) that we need to support in system development. This is a goal of ZUM’98, the 11th International Conference of Z Users, held for the ?rst time within continental Europe in the city of Berlin, Germany.
The RPC-memory specification problem was proposed by Broy and Lamport as a case study in the formal design of distributed and concurrent systems. As a realistic example typical for operating systems and hardware design, the RPC-memory problem was used as the basis for comparing various approaches to formal specification, refinement, and verification. Preliminary solutions were discussed during a workshop at Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany, in September 1994. Then an extensive discussion took place between the referees and authors. Finally 15 thoroughly revised papers were accepted for inclusion in this volume in full detail together with the problem statement and a synopsis.
Building software often seems harder than it ought to be. It takes longer than expected, the software's functionality and performance are not as wonderful as hoped, and the software is not particularly malleable or easy to maintain. It does not have to be that way. This book is about programming, and the role that formal specifications can play in making programming easier and programs better. The intended audience is practicing programmers and students in undergraduate or basic graduate courses in software engineering or formal methods. To make the book accessible to such an audience, we have not presumed that the reader has formal training in mathematics or computer science. We have, however, presumed some programming experience. The roles of fonnal specifications Designing software is largely a matter of combining, inventing, and planning the implementation of abstractions. The goal of design is to describe a set of modules that interact with one another in simple, well defined ways. If this is achieved, people will be able to work independently on different modules, and yet the modules will fit together to accomplish the larger purpose. In addition, during program maintenance it will be possible to modify a module without affecting many others. Abstractions are intangible. But they must somehow be captured and communicated. That is what specifications are for. Specification gives us a way to say what an abstraction is, independent of any of its implementations.
