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Speeding Up Simulation of SystemC Using Model Checking

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Formal Methods: Foundations and Applications (SBMF 2009)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 5902))

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Abstract

SystemC is a system-level modeling language that offers a wide range of features to describe concurrent systems. The SystemC standard permits simulators to implement a deterministic thread scheduling policy, which often hides concurrency-related design flaws. We present a novel compiler for SystemC that integrates a formal race analysis based on Model Checking techniques. The key insight to make the formal analysis scalable is to apply the Model Checker only to small partitions of the model. Our compiler produces a simulator that uses the race analysis information at runtime to perform partial-order reduction, thereby eliminating context switches that do not affect the result of the simulation. Experimental results show simulation speedups of one order of magnitude and better.

This paper is an extended version of a conference paper that appeared at ICCAD 2008 [1]. This research is supported by ETH research grant TH-21/05-1 and by the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) under contract no. 2006-TJ-1539.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ETH Zurich, Switzerland

    Nicolas Blanc

  2. Computing Laboratory, Oxford University, UK

    Daniel Kroening

Authors
  1. Nicolas Blanc
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  2. Daniel Kroening
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Informática e Matemática Aplicada, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Campus Universitário, CEP: 59078-900, Lagoa Nova Natal, RN, Brasil

    Marcel Vinícius Medeiros Oliveira

  2. Department of Computer Science, University of York, Heslington, YO1 7BZ, York, UK

    Jim Woodcock

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Blanc, N., Kroening, D. (2009). Speeding Up Simulation of SystemC Using Model Checking. In: Oliveira, M.V.M., Woodcock, J. (eds) Formal Methods: Foundations and Applications. SBMF 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5902. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-10452-7_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-10452-7_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-10451-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-10452-7

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