The derivation of regular synchronous circuits

An approach to derive parameterized representations of regular synchronous circuits from their specification is presented. The derivation of designs consists of two steps: rewriting the specification in terms of predefined structures to obtain a draft architecture, and optimizing that architecture by successive correctness-preserving transformations using algebraic theorems. These steps can be repeated to obtain, at a lower level of abstraction, architectures that still satisfy the original specification. A number of word-level and bit-level rank evaluator designs are developed to illustrate the techniques describes.<>