Abstract

Temporal logic is gaining recognition as an attractive and versatile formalism for rigorously specifying and reasoning about computer programs, digital circuits and message-passing systems. This book introduces Tempura, a programming language based on temporal logic, Tempura provides a way of directly executing suitable temporal logic specifications of digital circuits, parallel programs and other dynamic systems. Since every Tempura statement is also a temporal formula, the entire temporal logic formalism can be used as the assertion language and semantics. One result is that Tempura has the two seemingly contradictory properties of being a logic programming language and having imperative constructs such as assignment statements. The presentation investigates Interval Temporal Logic, a formalism with conventional temporal operators such as next and always as well as lesser known ones such as chop. This provides the basis for Tempura. The design of an interpreter for Tempura is also included, as are a variety of sample Tempura programs illustrating how to model both hardware and software.