Abstract
We describe how to specify an executable behavioral model of hardware without specifying the hardware detail using ACL2 encapsulation. ACL2 encapsulation is a mechanism to introduce abstract functions with constraints. It can be used to specify a microarchitectural design of hardware, which can be used for early simulation and for verification. Such a high-level design can also be used as a reference model when implementing low-level designs in RTL. This paper examines two abstract specifications from a microprocessor verification project. One example is a branch predictor for a processor with speculative execution and the other is a pipelined multiplier.
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Sawada, J., Hunt, W.A. (2000). Hardware Modeling Using Function Encapsulation. In: Hunt, W.A., Johnson, S.D. (eds) Formal Methods in Computer-Aided Design. FMCAD 2000. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1954. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-40922-X_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-40922-X_15
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