Structuring and automating hardware proofs in a higher-order theorem-proving environment

In this article we present a structured approach to formal hardware verification by modeling circuits at the register-transfer level using a restricted form of higher-order logic. This restricted form of higher-order logic is sufficient for obtaining succinct descriptions of hierarchically designed register-transfer circuits. By exploiting the structure of the underlying hardware proofs and limiting the form of descriptions used, we have attained nearly complete automation in proving the equivalences of the specifications and implementations. A hardware-specific tool called MEPHISTO converts the original goal into a set of simpler subgoals, which are then automatically solved by a general-purpose, first-order prover called FAUST. Furthermore, the complete verification framework is being integrated within a commercial VLSI CAD framework.

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