Specifying Hardware Systems in LOTOS

This paper reports on some initial results in using LOTOS as a hardware description language. LOTOS, the Language Of Temporal Ordering Specifications, is a language that has been conceived in the framework of Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) standardization as a tool for the formal description of OSI services and protocols. We present some examples to show how LOTOS can be applied to the specification of hardware systems. The resulting specifications are obtained by mapping hardware components into LOTOS processes and connection wires into LOTOS interaction points. Much of the power of this mapping mechanism is based on the parallel composition operator, which is central to the design of highly concurrent systems, across many levels of abstraction. Keyword Codes: D.1.3; D.2.1; D.3.1