"A Formal Approach to Hardware Design" discusses designing computations to be realized by application-specific hardware. It introduces a formal design approach based on a high-level design language called Synchronized Transitions. The models created using Synchronized Transitions enable the designer to perform different kinds of analysis and verification based on descriptions in a single language. It is, for example, possible to use the same design description both for mechanically supported verification and synthesis. Synchronized Transitions is supported by a collection of public domain CAD tools. These tools can be used with the book in presenting a course on the subject. The prototype CAD tools are all available by anonymous ftp, as is the table of contents. This work aims to illustrate the benefits to be gained from adopting such techniques, but it does so without assuming prior knowledge of formal design methods. As such, this book should serve not only as a valuable reference but is also suitable for use by students and practitioners.
