This book is based upon work done under the project "Correct Software through Formal Methods" supported by the German Ministry of Research and Technology. As a case-study report on the practice of formal software development, this book systematically presents and compares 18 different approaches to the control of a real-world production cell. Mathematically precise, formal methods play an increasingly important role in software development, particularly in areas where failure of software would result in injury to people or, at best, significant loss of money. By analyzing the benefits and explaining the use and limitations of formal methods on a sample basis, this book provides a roadmap for the selection and application of appropriate approaches and thus helps in putting formal methods into industrial use.

This book provides a framework for software design that shows where the techniques and approaches of design methods for software systems fit in. It discusses three methods in detail and demonstrates how to pick techniques from each of them. It also shows how to follow problem-solving steps that focus on the design problem rather than on the method.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Fourth International AMAST Workshop on Real-Time Systems and Concurrent and Distributed Software, ARTS'97, held in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, in May 1997. The volume presents 24 carefully selected revised full papers. Also included are two historical contributions honoring Ramon Llull, who was born on Mallorca, as well as two invited papers. All current issues in the field of formal methods for real-time systems and distributed and concurrent systems are addressed.

This book will attempt to give a first synthesis of recent works con cerning reactive system design. The term "reactive system" has been introduced in order to at'oid the ambiguities often associated with by the term "real-time system," which, although best known and more sugges tive, has been given so many different meanings that it is almost in evitably misunderstood. Industrial process control systems, transporta tion control and supervision systems, signal-processing systems, are ex amples of the systems we have in mind. Although these systems are more and more computerized, it is sur prising to notice that the problem of time in computer science has been studied only recently by "pure" computer scientists. Until the early 1980s, time problems were regarded as the concern of performance evalu ation, or of some (unjustly scorned) "industrial computer engineering," or, at best, of operating systems. A second surprising fact, in contrast, is the growth of research con cerning timed systems during the last decade. The handling of time has suddenly become a fundamental goal for most models of concurrency. In particular, Robin Alilner 's pioneering works about synchronous process algebras gave rise to a school of thought adopting the following abstract point of view: As soon as one admits that a system can instantaneously react to events, i. e.

ETAPS2000 was the third instance of the EuropeanJoint Conferenceson Theory and Practice of Software. ETAPS is an annual federated conference that was established in 1998 by combining a number of existing and new conferences. This year it comprised ?ve conferences (FOSSACS, FASE, ESOP, CC, TACAS), ?ve satellite workshops (CBS, CMCS, CoFI, GRATRA, INT), seven invited lectures, a panel discussion, and ten tutorials. The events that comprise ETAPS address various aspects of the system - velopment process, including speci?cation, design, implementation, analysis, and improvement. The languages, methodologies, and tools which support these - tivities are all well within its scope. Di?erent blends of theory and practice are represented, with an inclination towards theory with a practical motivation on one hand and soundly-based practice on the other. Many of the issues involved in software design apply to systems in general, including hardware systems, and the emphasis on software is not intended to be exclusive.

The second half of the twentieth century has witnessed remarkable advances in technology. The unquestioned leader in this race has been computer technology. Even the most modest personal computers today have computing power that would have astounded the leading technol ogists a few decades earlier, and what's more, similar advances are pre dicted for many years to come. Looking towards the future, it has been conservatively estimated that in 2047 computers could easily be 100,000 times more powerful than they were in 1997 (Moore's law [Moore] would lead to an increase on the order of around 10 billion) [Bell]. Because of its enormous capability, computer technology is becoming pervasive across the technology spectrum. Nowadays it is not surpris ing to discover that very common household gadgets like your toaster contain computer technology. Televisions, microwave ovens, and even electric shavers contain software. And what's more, the use of computer technology has been estimated to double every two years [Gibbs]. In order to keep up with the growing technology demands and to fully utilize the ever more powerful computing platforms, software projects have become more and more ambitious. This has lead to software systems becoming dominant forces in system functionality. Further more, the ambition to realize significant portions of a system's function ality through software has extended into the high consequence realm. Presently, software controls many critical functions in (1) airplanes, (2) electronic commerce, (3) space-bound systems, (4) medical systems, and (5) various transportation systems such as automobiles and trains.

Containing case studies and research findings, this book deals with methods and tools suitable for designing, managing, and controlling processes within the supply chain. The authors are leading experts within the international community in the field of production management.