For someone with a hammer the whole world looks like a nail. Within the last 10-13 years Binar·y Decision Diagmms (BDDs) have become the state-of-the-art data structure in VLSI CAD for representation and ma nipulation of Boolean functions. Today, BDDs are widely used and in the meantime have also been integrated in commercial tools, especially in the area of verijication and synthesis. The interest in BDDs results from the fact that the data structure is generally accepted as providing a good compromise between conciseness of representation and efficiency of manipulation. With increasing number of applications, also in non CAD areas, classical methods to handle BDDs are being improved and new questions and problems evolve and have to be solved. The book should help the reader who is not familiar with BDDs (or DDs in general) to get a quick start. On the other hand it will discuss several new aspects of BDDs, e.g. with respect to minimization and implementation of a package. This will help people working with BDDs (in industry or academia) to keep informed about recent developments in this area.

Finite functions (in particular, Boolean functions) play a fundamental role in computer science and discrete mathematics. This book describes representations of Boolean functions that have small size for many important functions and which allow efficient work with the represented functions. The representation size of important and selected functions is estimated, upper and lower bound techniques are studied, efficient algorithms for operations on these representations are presented, and the limits of those techniques are considered. This book is the first comprehensive description of theory and applications. Research areas like complexity theory, efficient algorithms, data structures, and discrete mathematics will benefit from the theory described in this book. The results described within have applications in verification, computer-aided design, model checking, and discrete mathematics. This is the only book to investigate the representation size of Boolean functions and efficient algorithms on these representations.

Symbolic Boolean manipulation using binary decision diagrams (BDDs) has been successfully applied to a wide variety of tasks, particularly in very large scale integration (VLSI) computer-aided design (CAD). The concept of decision graphs as an abstract representation of Boolean functions dates back to the early work by Lee and Akers. In the last ten years, BDDs have found widespread use as a concrete data structure for symbolic Boolean manipulation. With BDDs, functions can be constructed, manipulated, and compared by simple and efficient graph algorithms. Since Boolean functions can represent not just digital circuit functions, but also such mathematical domains as sets and relations, a wide variety of CAD problems can be solved using BDDs. `Binary Decision Diagrams and Applications for VLSI CAD provides valuable information for both those who are new to BDDs as well as to long time aficionados.' -from the Foreword by Randal E. Bryant. `Over the past ten years ... BDDs have attracted the attention of many researchers because of their suitability for representing Boolean functions. They are now widely used in many practical VLSI CAD systems. ... this book can serve as an introduction to BDD techniques and ... it presents several new ideas on BDDs and their applications. ... many computer scientists and engineers will be interested in this book since Boolean function manipulation is a fundamental technique not only in digital system design but also in exploring various problems in computer science.' - from the Preface by Shin-ichi Minato.

Model checking is a computer-assisted method for the analysis of dynamical systems that can be modeled by state-transition systems. Drawing from research traditions in mathematical logic, programming languages, hardware design, and theoretical computer science, model checking is now widely used for the verification of hardware and software in industry. The editors and authors of this handbook are among the world's leading researchers in this domain, and the 32 contributed chapters present a thorough view of the origin, theory, and application of model checking. In particular, the editors classify the advances in this domain and the chapters of the handbook in terms of two recurrent themes that have driven much of the research agenda: the algorithmic challenge, that is, designing model-checking algorithms that scale to real-life problems; and the modeling challenge, that is, extending the formalism beyond Kripke structures and temporal logic. The book will be valuable for researchers and graduate students engaged with the development of formal methods and verification tools.

This book introduces a novel approach to discrete optimization, providing both theoretical insights and algorithmic developments that lead to improvements over state-of-the-art technology. The authors present chapters on the use of decision diagrams for combinatorial optimization and constraint programming, with attention to general-purpose solution methods as well as problem-specific techniques. The book will be useful for researchers and practitioners in discrete optimization and constraint programming. "Decision Diagrams for Optimization is one of the most exciting developments emerging from constraint programming in recent years. This book is a compelling summary of existing results in this space and a must-read for optimizers around the world." [Pascal Van Hentenryck]

Research and development of logic synthesis and verification have matured considerably over the past two decades. Many commercial products are available, and they have been critical in harnessing advances in fabrication technology to produce today's plethora of electronic components. While this maturity is assuring, the advances in fabrication continue to seemingly present unwieldy challenges. Logic Synthesis and Verification provides a state-of-the-art view of logic synthesis and verification. It consists of fifteen chapters, each focusing on a distinct aspect. Each chapter presents key developments, outlines future challenges, and lists essential references. Two unique features of this book are technical strength and comprehensiveness. The book chapters are written by twenty-eight recognized leaders in the field and reviewed by equally qualified experts. The topics collectively span the field. Logic Synthesis and Verification fills a current gap in the existing CAD literature. Each chapter contains essential information to study a topic at a great depth, and to understand further developments in the field. The book is intended for seniors, graduate students, researchers, and developers of related Computer-Aided Design (CAD) tools. From the foreword: "The commercial success of logic synthesis and verification is due in large part to the ideas of many of the authors of this book. Their innovative work contributed to design automation tools that permanently changed the course of electronic design." by Aart J. de Geus, Chairman and CEO, Synopsys, Inc.

Formal verification means having a mathematical model of a system, a language for specifying desired properties of the system in a concise, comprehensible and unambiguous way, and a method of proof to verify that the specified properties are satisfied. When the method of proof is carried out substantially by machine, we speak of automatic verification. Symbolic Model Checking deals with methods of automatic verification as applied to computer hardware. The practical motivation for study in this area is the high and increasing cost of correcting design errors in VLSI technologies. There is a growing demand for design methodologies that can yield correct designs on the first fabrication run. Moreover, design errors that are discovered before fabrication can also be quite costly, in terms of engineering effort required to correct the error, and the resulting impact on development schedules. Aside from pure cost considerations, there is also a need on the theoretical side to provide a sound mathematical basis for the design of computer systems, especially in areas that have received little theoretical attention.