My main project is to create an executable spec of the Intel Architecture but, every now and then, I get to take a broader look at ISA specifications and think about the strengths and weaknesses of other ISA specs: what makes them work well; and what techniques they could borrow from other specifications. Earlier this month, someone asked me for my thoughts on the RISC-V specification and I thought that it would be useful to share what I found out.| alastairreid.github.io
Programming languages provide modules as a way of splitting large programs up into small, separate pieces. Modules enable information hiding that prevents one part of the program from using and becoming dependent on some internal detail of how other parts of the program are implemented. Almost every major language designed in the last 50 years has some form of module system.| alastairreid.github.io
Today I am joining Intel Strategic CAD Labs to work on formal specifications. There’s not much to say so far because I’ve only just started but I think it’s going to be a lot of fun (and a lot of work). I figure that a lot of the first month or two will be spent figuring out what people want to do with formal specifications so, if you think that this will be relevant to you, please get in touch. I am equally interested in uses that are on my list of uses for ISA specifications and uses ...| alastairreid.github.io
There are lots of potential uses for machine readable specifications so you would think that every major real world artifact like long-lived hardware and software systems, protocols, languages, etc. would have a formal specification that is used by all teams extending the design, creating new implementations, testing/verifying the system, verifying code that uses the system, doing security analyses or any of the other potential uses. But, in practice, this is usually not true: most real world...| alastairreid.github.io