μCRL: A Computer Science based approach for specification and verification of hardware circuits

muCRL is a process algebraic language for the formal specification and analysis of the behaviour of distributed systems. The toolset of muCRL is the result of software engineering research with a very strong foundation in formal theories/methods, which supports the analysis and manipulation of muCRL specifications. This paper investigates a Computer Science based approach for specification and verification of hardware circuits using muCRL and its toolset. Two standard benchmark circuits are described in muCRL and analysed by the muCRL toolset together with the software tools CADP and SPIN, which are well-equipped with the muCRL toolset.