Boolean controllers for systems with complex datapaths are often very difficult to implement correctly, in particular when concurrency is involved. Yet, in many instances it is easy to formally specify correctness. For example, the specification for the controller of a pipelined processor only has to state that the pipelined processor gives the same results as a non-pipelined reference design. ...

We are indebted to generous contributions from the member companies of the Parallel Data Consortium. At the time of this writing, these companies include Hewlett-Abstract Shared storage arrays enable thousands of storage devices to be shared and directly accessed by end hosts over switched system-area networks, promising databases and filesystems highly scalable, reliable storage. In such syste...

Concurrency is often perceived as difficult by students. One reason for this may be due to the fact that abstractions used in concurrent programs leave more situations undefined compared sequential (e.g., what order statements are executed), which makes it harder create a proper mental model of execution environment. Students who aim explore through testing further hindered non-determinism sinc...