Office Hours
In Spring, 2023, I will be teaching CS340d. If you would like to talk
with me, please send me an E-mail message to schedule an appointment.
Course Information
Notes and information for my courses
are on-line. I would appreciate any feedback and corrections.
Interest Areas
My research involves the use of formal mathematics to write
specifications for computer hardware and software and to use proof
techniques to determine the validity of such specifications.
Specifications of both high-level intent and low-level implementations
are possible, and mechanical proof techniques can determine whether
implementations satisfy their specifications. Over the years, I have
verified a number of different microprocessor designs of increasing
complexity.
I am also interested in computer architecture, low-power computing,
garbage collection, and biological-inspired computing. Currently, I
am working on rapid, single-flux quantum (RSFQ) computing, specifying
computer memory models, and extending our ACL2-based x86 specification.
Additional details are available.
Accomplishments
My primary contributions concern the formal specification and
verification of digital computing systems. I am currently involved
with the study of RSFQ circuits and X86 ISA specification and design
validation. I also worked briefly in the area of computational
biology. I have listed some of
these efforts.
Papers, Resume, and Personal Information
In my vita is a listing of all
of my papers; there are also links to each of my papers. Out of
consideration for my references, I do not include their names and
contact information on the Web, but they are available upon request.
A short biography is also
available.
My Google Scholar
page
can be used to find most of my publications.
Research Topics
I am working on several
research topics. Please contact me if you desire additional
information.
Some Talks
In 2021, J Moore and I gave a litany of lectures about the use of
ACL2; look part way down this
webpage for our names.
This is a talk given at
the Newton Institute about Centaur Technology's use of ACL2 to specify
and verify properties of VIA x86 microprocessor designs.
In 2017, I gave an invited
talk to the JASON Advisory Group about our hardware-focused
efforts.
In 2016, I gave an invited talk
at the Royal Society about our specifying the x86 ISA and our use of
this specificaiton.
I gave an invited talk at ITP
2011, about our work with Centaur Technology, Inc., where we are
verifying various properties of the 64-bit, VIA Nano, X86-compatible
microprocessor.
I gave a talk at CAV 2009 about
my work with Sol Swords regarding our efforts at applying our tools to
VIA's Nano processor.
I was one several presenters at the CAV2004 tutorial on
microprocessor verification. I presented slides outlining the difficulty of
identifying microprocessor correctness statements, and I presented a
summary of the verification of the FM9801 (Jun Sawada's PhD
Dissertation work) as an example microprocessor verification effort.
In the second part of my presentation, I presented slides with some thoughts of what
facilities future hardware verifications system should include.
FMCAD
For nearly two decades, I served as chairman of the FMCAD steering
committee; I stepped down in 2020. The FMCAD conference series has
existed since 1996. The conference is supported by FMCAD, Inc., and
the conference has enjoyed "in-kind" support from the ACM and the
IEEE. For 1996 -- 2004, FMCAD conference proceeding were published in
Springer's LNCS. Since 2005, FMCAD conference papers are available in
the ACM and IEEE digital libraries. Additional details
about FMCAD are available.
Professional Associates
Robert S. Boyer -- UTCS
Professor Emeritus.
Jared Davis -- PhD
& Amazon Scientist.
Jo
Ebergen -- PhD & Retired Senior Consulting Engineer, Oracle.
Shilpi Goel --
PhD & Engineer, Intel Corporation.
Matt Kaufmann
-- PhD & Retired UTCS Senior Research Scientist.
J Strother Moore -- UTCS
Professor Emeritus.
David Rager --
PhD & Finance Scientist.
Sandip Ray -- PhD &
Endowed IoT Term Professor, University of Florida at Gainesville.
Marly
Roncken -- Senior Research Associate, Portland State University.
Anna Slobodova -- PhD &
Senior Principal Engineer, Intel Corporation.
Rob Sumners -- PhD &
Principal Engineer, Intel Corporation.
Ivan
Sutherland -- Research Professor, Portland State University.
Sol Swords -- PhD & Principal
Engineer, Intel Corporation.
Mertcan Temel -- PhD &
Engineer, Intel Corporation.
Tandy Warnow -- UIUC
Founder Professor.
Nathan Weltzer
-- PhD & Senior Engineer, Intel Corporation.
Current PhD Students:
PhD students that work in my research group.
Carl Kwan -- CS
PhD Student.
Gavin Meil -- CS
PhD Student.
Maxine Xin -- CS
PhD Student.
Current PhD Candidates:
PhD students that have successfully
proposed and for which I am acting as their principal advisor.
None at present.
Graduated PhDs
Jun Sawada -- CS
PhD, 1999.
Shant Harutunian -- ECE PhD, Spring, 2007.
Erik Reeber -- CS
PhD, Fall, 2007.
Serita Nelesen --
CS PhD, co-advised with
Tandy Warnow,
Fall, 2009.
Sol Swords --
CS PhD, Fall, 2010.
David Rager --
CS PhD, Fall, 2012.
Ian Wehrman --
CS PhD, co-advised with
J Moore,
Fall, 2012.
Nathan Weltzer
-- CS PhD, co-advised with
Marijn Heule,
Spring, 2015.
Shilpi Goel --
CS PhD, Fall, 2016.
Cuong Chau --
CS PhD, Spring, 2019.
Mertcan Temel --
CS PhD, Summer, 2021.
Standard disclaimer
Nothing on my web pages should be taken as representing the official
position of the University of Texas at Austin or any other part of the
government of the State of Texas.
Up
To the University of Texas at Austin Computer Sciences Department.