Formal methods for emerging technologies

Formal methods advanced to an important core technique in Computer-Aided Design (CAD). At the same time, researchers and engineers also started the investigation of so-called emerging technologies such as reversible computation, quantum computation, or optical circuits. Although most of these technologies are still in a rather “academic” state, first physical realizations have already been presented. This motivates a more detailed consideration of how to design circuits for these technologies. As for conventional circuits, formal methods do play an important role here. In this tutorial paper1, we are aiming to address the current momentum caused by the recent accomplishments and provide an overview of these emerging technologies as well as their corresponding CAD methods. This includes a special focus on how formal methods may help in the design and verification of circuits for those technologies.