Formal Methods for Emerging Technologies

Formal Methods advanced to an important core technology in Computer-Aided Design (CAD). At the same time, researchers and engineers also started the investigation of so-called emerging technologies such as quantum computation, reversible computation, optical circuits, or biochips. Although most of these technologies are still in a rather "academic" state, first physical realizations have already been presented or even entered the market recently. 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, we are aiming to address the current momentum caused by the recent accomplishments and provide a comprehensive introduction into these emerging technologies as well as their corresponding CAD methods. This will include a special focus on how formal methods may help in the design and verification of circuits for those technologies.