It is many years since Landin, Burge and others showed us how to apply higher order techniques and thus laid some foundations for modern functional programming. The advantage of higher order descriptions - that they can be very succinct and clear - has been percolating through ever since. Current research topics range from the design, implementation and use of higher order proof assistants and theorem provers, through program specification and verification, and programming language design, to its applications in hardware description and verification. The papers in this book represent the...

As the costs of power and timing become increasingly difficult to manage in traditional synchronous systems, designers are being forced to look at asynchronous alternatives. Based on reworked and expanded papers from the VII Banff Higher Order Workshop, this volume examines asynchronous methods which have been used in large circuit design, ranging from initial formal specification to more standard finite state machine based control models. Written by leading practitioners in the area, the papers cover many aspects of current practice including practical design, silicon compilation, and...

This report describes the partially completed correctness proof of the Viper 'block model'. Viper 7,8,9,11,23] is a microprocessor designed by W. J. Cullyer, C. Pygott and J. Kershaw at the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment in Malvern, England, (henceforth 'RSRE') for use in safety-critical applications such as civil aviation and nuclear power plant control. It is currently finding uses in areas such as the de ployment of weapons from tactical aircraft. To support safety-critical applications, Viper has a particulary simple design about which it is relatively easy to reason using current...