Seppo Virtanen’s scientific contributions

In this paper, the authors present a formal specification of a novel design paradigm, hierarchical agent monitored SoCs (HAMSOC). The paradigm motivates dynamic monitoring in a hierarchical and distributed manner, with adaptive agents embedded for local and global operations. Formal methods are of essential importance to the development of such a novel and complex platform. As the initial effort, functional specification is indispensable to the non-ambiguous system modeling before potential property verification. The formal specification defines the manner by which the system can be constructed with hierarchical components and the representation of run-time information in modeling entities and every type of the monitoring operations. The syntax follows the standard set theory with additional glossary and notations introduced to facilitate practical SoC design process. A case study of hierarchical monitoring for power management in NoC (Network-on-chip), written with the formal specification, is demonstrated.

Formal methods of concurrent programming can be used to develop and verify complex Multi–Processor Systems–On–Chip in order to ensure that these systems satisfy their functional and communication requirements. The authors use the Action Systems formalism and show how asynchronous communication of Multi–Processor Systems–on–Chip can be modeled using generic connectors composed out of simple channel components. The paper proposes a new approach to modeling generic and hierarchical connectors for handling the complexity of on–chip communication and data flow. The authors’ goal is to avoid overloaded bus–based architectures and give a distributed framework. A case study presents the authors’ modeling methodology.

Smart devices have pervaded our society and encouraged lifestyles that depend on them. One of the fundamental requirements for a successful dependency is that the general public be aware of the energy limitations of these devices and to stay in control of energy consumption. In this paper, the authors propose a formal specification method that takes energy into account. They propose two development approaches that can use these specifications to develop energy-aware systems in a sustainable manner.