Paul Molitor – författare

Hardware veri?cation is the process of checking whether a design conforms to its speci?cations of functionality and timing. In today’s design processes it becomes more and more important. Very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuits and the resulting digital systems have conquered a place in almost all areas of our life, even in security sensitive applications. Complex digital systems control airplanes, have been used in banks and on intensive-care units. Hence, the demand for error-free designs is more important than ever. In addition, economic reasons underline this demand as well. The design and production process of present day VLSI-circuits is highly time- and cost-intensive. Mo- over, it is nearly impossible to repair integrated circuits. Thus, it is desirable to detect design errors early in the design process and not just after producing the prototype chip. All these facts are re?ected by developing and prod- tion statistics of present day companies. For example, In?neon Technologies [118] assumed that about 60% to 80% of the overall design time was spent for veri?cation in 2000. Other sources cite the 3-to-1 head count ratio between veri?cation engineers and logic designers. This shows that verifying logical correctness of the design of hardware systems is a major gate to the problem of time-to-market (cf. [113]). With the chip complexity constantly increasing, the dif?culty as well as the - portance of functional veri?cation of new product designs has been increased. It is not only more important to get error-free designs.

With the chip complexity constantly increasing, the difficulty as well as the importance of functional verification of new product designs has been increased. It is not only more important to get error-free designs. Moreover, it becomes an increasingly difficult task for a team of human designers to carry out a full design without errors. The traditional training of new verification engineers has to be adapted to the new situation. New skills are necessary. For these reasons, nearly all major universities offer lectures on basic verification techniques such as propositional temporal logic, model checking, equivalence checking, and simulation coverage measures. The present book is designed as a textbook covering one of the most important aspects in the verification process -- equivalence checking of Boolean circuits. Equivalence Checking of Digital Circuits is a textbook for advanced students in electrical and computer engineering, but is also intended for researchers who will find it useful as a reference text.

Hardware veri?cation is the process of checking whether a design conforms to its speci?cations of functionality and timing. In today’s design processes it becomes more and more important. Very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuits and the resulting digital systems have conquered a place in almost all areas of our life, even in security sensitive applications. Complex digital systems control airplanes, have been used in banks and on intensive-care units. Hence, the demand for error-free designs is more important than ever. In addition, economic reasons underline this demand as well. The design and production process of present day VLSI-circuits is highly time- and cost-intensive. Mo- over, it is nearly impossible to repair integrated circuits. Thus, it is desirable to detect design errors early in the design process and not just after producing the prototype chip. All these facts are re?ected by developing and prod- tion statistics of present day companies. For example, In?neon Technologies [118] assumed that about 60% to 80% of the overall design time was spent for veri?cation in 2000. Other sources cite the 3-to-1 head count ratio between veri?cation engineers and logic designers. This shows that verifying logical correctness of the design of hardware systems is a major gate to the problem of time-to-market (cf. [113]). With the chip complexity constantly increasing, the dif?culty as well as the - portance of functional veri?cation of new product designs has been increased. It is not only more important to get error-free designs.

Integrierte Schaltkreise haben in den vergangenen Jahren massiv unsere Umwelt verändert. Rechnersysteme in den verschiedensten Ausprägungen sind integraler Bestandteil des täglichen Lebens geworden. Sie finden sich als Notebooks im Privathaushalt, als Großrechner im Banken- und Versicherungswesen, aber auch als Mikrocontroller in Autos, Eisenbahnen und Flugzeugen, in Handys, Unterhaltungselektronik und in der Medizintechnik. Unabhängig von der Anwendung gibt es jedoch gemeinsame Basiskomponenten, aus denen sich jeder dieser Rechner zusammensetzt. Rechner "optimal" für eine Zielanwendung zu konstruieren und zu konfigurieren, erfordert ein tiefergehendes Verständnis wie einzelne Schaltungskomponenten aufgebaut und konstruiert sein müssen, aber auch Wissen über die gesamte "Rechnerarchitektur". Die Vermittlung dieser Fähigkeiten ist eine Kernaufgabe der Technischen Informatik, die die Integration unterschiedlicher Bereiche erfordert. Die vorliegende einführende Darstellung in die Technische Informatik will hierzu einen Beitrag leisten. Sie vermittelt einen Überblick über den prinzipiellen Aufbau und die elementare Funktionsweise moderner Rechner. Dabei wird nicht nur die Software/Hardware-Schnittstelle behandelt, sondern auch auf das Zusammenspiel dieser Komponenten und damit auf die prinzipielle Arbeitsweise eines Prozessors eingegangen.

Das Buch umfasst den Stoff einer einsemestrigen Vorlesung und bietet dem Leser eine leicht verständliche und mit vielen interessanten Beispielen unterlegte Einführung in die Sprache. Die Autoren verzichten bewusst auf die Erläuterung nur selten benutzter Konstrukte und konzentrieren ihre Darstellung auf die Betrachtung der Sprache unter dem Aspekt der Schaltkreissynthese. Das Buch verbindet Theorie und praktische Anwendungsbeispiele.

Die vorliegende Festschrift zum 90. Geburtstag von Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Günter Hotz zeigt insbesondere über Kurzberichte der Doktorkinder die Nachwirkung von Günter Hotz’ Schaffen auf. Sie gibt damit auch einen schönen Überblick über die Informatik in Deutschland.