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Easy Formal Specification and Validation of Unbounded Networks-on-Chips Architectures

Published:01 January 2012Publication History
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Abstract

This article presents a formal specification and validation environment to prove safety and liveness properties of parametric -- unbounded -- NoCs architectures described at a high-level of abstraction. The environment improves the GeNoC approach with two new theorems, proving evacuation and starvation freedom. The application of the validation methodology is illustrated on a HERMES NoC with adaptive west-first routing and wormhole switching. This case study illustrates the strong compositional aspect of the GeNoC environment. The complete specification of this HERMES instance, together with the proof that the specification is deadlock-free, starvation free, and all messages eventually leave the network at their correct destination, could be achieved in about a week. Approximately 86% of this proof is automatically derived from the GeNoC model.

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        cover image ACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems
        ACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems  Volume 17, Issue 1
        January 2012
        224 pages
        ISSN:1084-4309
        EISSN:1557-7309
        DOI:10.1145/2071356
        Issue’s Table of Contents

        Copyright © 2012 ACM

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        Publication History

        • Published: 1 January 2012
        • Accepted: 1 July 2011
        • Revised: 1 May 2011
        • Received: 1 December 2010
        Published in todaes Volume 17, Issue 1

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