Structure in Hardware Proofs: First Steps Towards Automation in a Higher-Order Environment

Most proofs of hardware in an higher-order logic environment follow a definite pattern. This observation is used to give a methodology for hardware proofs in order to isolate the situations where the designer’s creativity is required, and to automate the remaining tedious proof tasks. The interactive HOL theorem prover has been extended by generalized hardware specific tactics for simplifying proofs and an automatic theorem prover, called FAUST, for proving the simplified subgoals.

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