Boolean Comparison of Hardware and Flowcharts

Boolean comparison is a design verification technique in which two logic networks are compared for functional equivalence using analysis rather than simulation. Boolean comparison was used on the IBM 3081 project to establish that hardware flowcharts and the detailed hardware logic design were functionally equivalent. Hardware flowcharts are a graphic form of a hardware description language which describes the logical behavior of the machine in terms of the inputs, outputs, and latches. The logical correctness of the hardware flowcharts was previously established via cycle simulation. The concepts and techniques of Boolean comparison as used on the IBM 3081 project are described.