Study the past, if you would divine the future. -CONFUCIUS A well written, organized, and concise survey is an important tool in any newly emerging field of study. This present text is the first of a new series that has been established to promote the publications of such survey books. A survey serves several needs. Virtually every new research area has its roots in several diverse areas and many of the initial fundamental results are dispersed across a wide range of journals, books, and conferences in many dif ferent sub fields. A good survey should bring together these results. But just a collection of articles is not enough. Since terminology and notation take many years to become standardized, it is often difficult to master the early papers. In addition, when a new research field has its foundations outside of computer science, all the papers may be difficult to read. Each field has its own view of el egance and its own method of presenting results. A good survey overcomes such difficulties by presenting results in a notation and terminology that is familiar to most computer scientists. A good survey can give a feel for the whole field. It helps identify trends, both successful and unsuccessful, and it should point new researchers in the right direction.

This book presents 12 revised refereed papers selected as the best from 32 submissions for the First International Workshop on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems, TACAS '95, held in Aarhus, Denmark, in May 1995. The workshop brought together 46 researchers interested in the development and application of tools and algorithms for specification, verification, analysis, and construction of distributed systems. The papers included in the book are devoted to refinement-based and compositional verification, construction techniques, analysis and verification via theorem proving, process algebras, temporal and modal logics, techniques for real-time, hybrid and probabilistic systems, and value-passing systems.

There is arguably no field in greater need of a comprehensive handbook than computer engineering. The unparalleled rate of technological advancement, the explosion of computer applications, and the now-in-progress migration to a wireless world have made it difficult for engineers to keep up with all the developments in specialties outside their own. References published only a few years ago are now sorely out of date. The Computer Engineering Handbook changes all of that. Under the leadership of Vojin Oklobdzija and a stellar editorial board, some of the industry's foremost experts have joined forces to create what promises to be the definitive resource for computer design and engineering. Instead of focusing on basic, introductory material, it forms a comprehensive, state-of-the-art review of the field's most recent achievements, outstanding issues, and future directions. The world of computer engineering is vast and evolving so rapidly that what is cutting-edge today may be obsolete in a few months. While exploring the new developments, trends, and future directions of the field, The Computer Engineering Handbook captures what is fundamental and of lasting value.