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Verification of the Futurebus+ cache coherence protocol

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Abstract

We used a hardware description language to construct a formal model of the cache coherence protocol described in the IEEE Futurebus+standard. By applying temporal logic model checking techniques, we found errors in the standard. The result of our project is a concise, comprehensible and unambiguous model of the protocol that should be useful both to the Futurebus+Working Group members, who are responsible for the protocol, and to actual designers of Futurebus+boards.

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This research was sponsored in part by the Avionics Laboratory, Wright Research and Development Center, Aeronautical Systems Division (AFSC), U.S. AIR Force, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio 45433–6543 under contract F33615-90-C-1465, ARPA Order No. 7597 and in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant no. CCR.-9005992 and in part by the Semiconductor Research Corporation under Contract 92-DJ-294 and in part by the U.S.-Israeli Binational Science Foundation and in part by a Japan-U.S. cooperative research grant from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Scientific Research and in part by U.S.-Japan cooperative research grant number INT-90-16694 from the National Science Foundation.

The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the U.S. government.

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Clarke, E.M., Grumberg, O., Hiraishi, H. et al. Verification of the Futurebus+ cache coherence protocol. Form Method Syst Des 6, 217–232 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01383968

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