This research is on specification driven design of custom hardware. The P.I. is working with three consultants: Richard Fujimoto of Georgia Tech, Graham Birtwistle at Calgary, and Paliath Narendran of GE Corporate Research. The group is developing a uniform theory for describing mixed synchronous and asynchronous IC systems, as well as a theory for deriving implementations from specification written in a purely asynchronous style. The research is based on the "HOP" family of hardware description languages. The language being investigated is HOP-COP, which is a semantically simple, well characterized language. It specifically addresses description of mixed synchronous and asynchronous designs. Research topics include: identifying a minimal primitive basis for HOP-COP; developing verification techniques based on the language; finding algorithms for IC design tools; developing proof of correctness algorithms and tools; and exploring implementations of the research ideas. The research is on specification driven design of custom hardware, an aspect of high level design, which is a high priority in the DTT program. The P.I. proposes a group effort with himself and three consultants: Richard Fujimoto of Georgia Tech, Graham Birtwistle at Calgary, and Paliath Narendran of GE Corporate Research. The latter two are wise choices for the theoretical development, and Fujimoto is the "engineer" who can develop implementations of the theoretical ideas and experimentation with them. Professor Gopalakrishnan, who was an EIA awardee in FY87, has made very good progress in his research in a difficult subject, and shows potential for worthwhile contributions to the field.
