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Specification and verification of real-time, distributed systems using the theory of constraints

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Book cover 5th Conference on Automated Deduction Les Arcs, France, July 8–11, 1980 (CADE 1980)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 87))

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Abstract

A technique for the specification and verification of real-time, distributed systems is proposed. It provides a unified representation for both internal design and externally observable behavior and an automated procedure for deriving the external behavior associated with a design. The approach is applicable to both hardware and software, and can handle systems in which timing, concurrency, indeterminacy, and ongoing behavior are important considerations.

Although the approach contains elements of switching theory and automata theory, it diverges from other models with the definition of a constraint as an incompatibility among successive states. The proposed verification technique centers around an algorithm (incorporating the resolution principle and coded in LISP) that takes as input an acceptor for a set of design constraints and generates as output an acceptor for the set of prime constraints. A description of external behavior is obtained from this acceptor by pruning out all constraints involving hidden variables. It is anticipated that from this description it will be possible to verify properties relating to consistency, equivalence, deadlock, computer security, and fault tolerance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc., 02139, Cambridge, Massachusetts

    Frederick C. Furtek

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  1. Frederick C. Furtek
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Wolfgang Bibel Robert Kowalski

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© 1980 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Furtek, F.C. (1980). Specification and verification of real-time, distributed systems using the theory of constraints. In: Bibel, W., Kowalski, R. (eds) 5th Conference on Automated Deduction Les Arcs, France, July 8–11, 1980. CADE 1980. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 87. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-10009-1_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-10009-1_10

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-10009-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-38140-2

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