VLSI programming for the compact disc player

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Designs are derived for three error-handling functions in the compact disc player: the first decoder in the error corrector, the interpolator and the muter. All three functions are performed by autonomous processes, which interact with their environment by communication only. The designs are derived in a transformational way, which means that the ultimate design is derived by applying a series of correctness-preserving transformations on an initial design. Initial designs are fairly direct translations of functional specifications. A functional way of programming is applied. An automaton is conceived as a function from states to behaviours (processes), where states are equivalence classes of communication histories. A program then consists of two parts: a function definition of the automaton and an application of that function to the initial state. States are very useful in the verification of program transformations, since they facilitate the definition of a function mapping the states of the transformed automaton onto the states of the original one.