The widespread use of embedded systems in cost-critical and
life-critical applications has motivated the need for systematic
approaches to verifying functionality. The investigation for solutions
to verification has led to the increased importance of the
hardware/software covalidation problem because the vast majority of
embedded systems are built from both hardware and software
components. Covalidation employs simulation techniques to verify
system design correctness early in the design cycle. Simulation-based
approaches in general are far more popular than formal techniques in
practice because simulation is tractable for large designs, and
specification of formal properties is difficult for most designers. A
significant difficulty in the covalidation of hardware/software
systems has been the wide gap between the hardware and the software
research communities. This special issue will serve to bring these two
communities closer together to examine a common problem.
This special issue will address the range of topics related to
embedded hardware/software covalidation including, but not limited to,
the following:
- SAT solvers and their application to functional test generation
- Simulation-based semi-formal verification approaches
- Validation in the presence of reusable components
- Directed pseudo-random test generation for functional test
- Timing issues and their impact on behavioral correctness
- Fault-specific test generation techniques directed at behavioral
design faults
- Covalidation using various hardware/software description languages
- Test bench description languages
- Modeling of common behavioral design errors
- Design fault models and their correlation with real design
errors
- Efficient, timing-accurate cosimulation techniques
- Test response evaluation using correctness checking modules
Authors are encouraged to submit high quality, original works which
have not appeared in, nor are under consideration by, other
journals. Papers which have previously appeared in conference
proceedings will also be considered, and this should be so indicated
at the time of submission. Prior to submission of the manuscript, a
separate abstract should be submitted. The abstract should be
submitted via email in plain text format, and it should include the
following contact author information: name, address, telephone number,
and email. Each manuscript is not to exceed 30 1.5 spaced, 8.5x11 inch
pages, including figures and tables. Either postscript or pdf format
should be used for the paper submission. Both the manuscript and the
abstract should be submitted via email to the guest editor: Ian
G. Harris, University of Massachusetts Amherst, harris@ecs.umass.edu.
| Important Dates: |
| Submission of abstracts | 1/31/03 |
| Submission of manuscripts | 2/14/03 |
| Notification of paper acceptance | 4/14/03 |
| Submission of final manuscripts | 6/6/03 |