Formal design of a class of computers

We present a novel construction model of hardware and demonstrate how to use it in the entire process of formally designing a class of computers involving their specification, construction, and verification. In this paper we focus on the high stages of the design: the refinement from the behaviour specification at machine instruction level to the abstract microprogram at the term transition level. The concept of term transition introduced in this paper establishes a new generic high-level design stage which is common for computer architecture and design. Our approach is based on formal syntax and formal proof and constitutes a framework for the rigorous specification and verification of hardware synthesis systems.

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