Logic programming applied to hardware design specification and verification

Abstract

This paper proposes the use of logic programming techniques in the specification and verification of hardware designs. Logic programming specifications are formal and directly executable. The advantages of executable specifications are: (1) the specification is itself a prototype of the specified system, (2) incremental development of specifications is possible, (3) behavior exhibited by the specification when executed can be used to check conformity of the specification with requirements. We discuss how Horn clause logic, which has a procedural interpretation, and predicate logic programming language, Prolog, can be used as a hardware description language to specify and verify the correctness of hardware systems. The Prolog system possesses a backtracking mechanism and a powerful pattern-matching feature which is based on unification. A novel feature of the proposed approach is that it can be used to answer interesting questions about a hardware design without resorting to simulation.