Abstract
A novel process algebra is presented; algebraic expressions specify delay-insensitive circuits in terms of voltage-level transitions on wires. The algebraic laws make it possible to specify circuits concisely and facilitate the verification of designs. Individual components can be composed into circuits in which signals along internal wires are hidden from the environment.
This algebraic approach has been applied to the design of non-blocking arbiters. Our designs have subsequently been checked by automatic verifiers, which had to examine approximately 600 states.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
S. D. Brookes and A. W. Roscoe. An Improved Failures Model for Communicating Sequential Processes. Lect. Notes in Comp. Sci. 197, 281–305, 1984.
W. Chen, J. T. Udding, and T. Verhoeff. Networks of Communicating Processes and their (De)composition. In J. L. A. van de Snepscheut, editor, The Mathematics of Program Construction, number 375 in Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 174–196. Springer-Verlag, 1989.
D. L. Dill and E. M. Clarke. Automatic Verification of Asynchronous Circuits Using Temporal Logic. In H. Fuchs, editor, 1985 Chapel Hill Conference on Very Large Scale Integration, Computer Science Press, 127–143, 1985.
D. L. Dill. Trace Theory for Automatic Hierarchical Verification of Speed-Independent Circuits. PhD thesis, CMU-CS-88-119, Dept. of C.S., Carnegie-Mellon Univ., 1988.
J. C. Ebergen. Translating Programs into Delay-Insensitive Circuits. PhD thesis, Dept. of Math. and C.S., Eindhoven Univ. of Technology, 1987.
M. Hennessy. Algebraic Theory of Processes. Series in Foundations of Computing. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1988.
C. A. R. Hoare. Communicating Sequential Processes. Prentice-Hall, 1985.
He Jifeng, M. B. Josephs and C. A. R. Hoare. A Theory of Synchrony and Asynchrony. In Proceedings IFIP Working Conference on Programming Concepts and Methods, (to appear), 1990.
M. B. Josephs, C. A. R. Hoare, and He Jifeng. A Theory of Asynchronous Processes. J. ACM, (submitted), 1989.
M. B. Josephs and J. T. Udding. An Algebra for Delay-Insensitive Circuits. Technical Report WUCS-89-54, Washington University, St. Louis, and in Proceedings DIMACS/IFIP Workshop on Computer-Aided Verification, (to appear), 1990.
A. J. Martin. Compiling Communicating Processes into Delay-Insensitive VLSI Circuits. Distributed Computing, 1:226–234, 1986.
A. J. Martin. Programming in VLSI: From Communicating Processes to Delay-Insensitive Circuits. Caltech-CS-TR-89-1, Department of Computer Science, California Institute of Technology, 1989.
A. W. Roscoe and C. A. R. Hoare. The laws of occam programming. Theor. Comp. Sci. 60, 2:177–229, 1988.
I. E. Sutherland. Micropipelines. 1988 Turing Award Lecture. Communications of the ACM, 32(6):720–738, 1989.
J. T. Udding. Classification and Composition of Delay-Insensitive Circuits. PhD thesis, Dept. of Math. and C.S., Eindhoven Univ. of Technology, 1984.
J. T. Udding. A formal model for defining and classifying delay-insensitive circuits. Distributed Computing, 1(4):197–204, 1986.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1990 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Josephs, M.B., Udding, J.T. (1990). Delay-insensitive circuits: An algebraic approach to their design. In: Baeten, J.C.M., Klop, J.W. (eds) CONCUR '90 Theories of Concurrency: Unification and Extension. CONCUR 1990. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 458. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0039070
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0039070
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-53048-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-46395-5
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive