Abstract
Because of the complexity of software systems and their increasing criticality, there is a pressing need for sophisticated and highly automated tools for the analysis of software artifacts and their expected behavioral properties. A growing body of research is using formal methods to produce increasingly powerful and scalable analysis tools, although several challenges still remain. We briefly outline some recent achievements in automated analysis represented by four selected papers from the 21st International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems (TACAS 2015). Two of the selected papers describe major achievements in the field of parallel model checking. The third paper presents an auto-active theorem prover for the verification of Eiffel programs. The fourth paper reports on a non-trivial case study with hybrid automata and interactive theorem proving techniques.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abdulla, P.A., Aronis, S., Atig, M.F., Jonsson, B., Leonardsson, C., Sagonas, K.: Stateless model checking for TSO and PSO. Acta Informatica. doi:10.1007/s00236 (2016)
Alur, R.: Principles of Cyber-Physical Systems. MIT Press, Cambridge (2015)
Baier, C., Tinelli, C. (eds.) In: Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems (TACAS), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 9035. Springer, 2015. Held as Part of the European Joint Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software (ETAPS), 2015, London, UK, 11–18 April 2015
Barrett, C., Sebastiani, R., Seshia, S., Tinelli, C.: Satisfiability modulo theories. In: Biere, A., Heule, M.J.H., van Maaren, H., Walsh, T. (eds.) Handbook of Satisfiability, vol. 185, pp. 825–885. IOS Press, Amsterdam (2009). (Chapter 26)
Burch, J.R., Clarke, E.M., McMillan, K.L., Dill, D.L., Hwang, L.J.: Symbolic model checking: 10\(^20\) states and beyond. Inf. Comput. 98(2), 142–170 (1992)
Chistikov, D., Dimitrova, R., Majumdar, R.: Approximate counting in SMT and value estimation for probabilistic programs. Acta Informatica. doi:10.1007/s00236-017-0297-2 (2017)
Clarke, E.M., Biere, A., Raimi, R., Zhu, Y.: Bounded model checking using satisfiability solving. Form. Methods Syst. Des. 19(1), 7–34 (2001)
Cousot, P., Cousot, R.: Abstract interpretation frameworks. J. Log. Comput. 2(4), 511–547 (1992)
Filliâtre, J.-C., Paskevich, A.: Why3—where programs meet provers. In: European Symposium on Programming, pp. 125–128. Springer (2013)
Flanagan, C., Leino, K.R.M., Lillibridge, M., Nelson, G., Saxe, J.B.: Extended static checking for Java. In: Proceedings of ACM Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation, pp. 234–245 (June 2002)
Furia, C.A., Nordio, M., Polikarpova, N., Tschannen, J.: AutoProof: auto-active functional verification of object-oriented programs. Software Tools for Technology Transfer (STTT) (2017, this issue)
Giacobbe, M., Guet, C.C., Gupta, A., Henzinger, T.A., Paixao, T., Petrov, T.: Model checking the evolution of gene regulatory networks. Acta Informatica. doi:10.1007/s00236-016-0278-x (2017)
Grädel, E., Thomas, W., Wilke, T. (eds.) Automata, Logics, and Infinite Games: A Guide to Current Research. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 2500 (2002)
Harrison, J.: Formal verification. In: Broy, M., Leuxner, C., Hoare, T. (eds.) Software and Systems Safety—Specification and Verification, NATO Science for Peace and Security Series - D: Information and Communication Security, vol. 30, pp 103–157. IOS Press (2011)
Henzinger, T.A., Sifakis, J.: The embedded systems design challenge. In: International Symposium on Formal Methods, pp. 1–15. Springer (2006)
Jeannin, J.-B., Ghorbal, K., Kouskoulas, Y., Schmidt, A., Gardner, R., Mitsch, S., Platzer, A.: A formally verified hybrid system for safe advisories in the next-generation airborne collision avoidance system. Software Tools for Technology Transfer (STTT) (2017, this issue)
Lee, E.A., Seshia, S.A.: Introduction to Embedded Systems: A Cyber-Physical Systems Approach. MIT Press, Cambridge (2016)
Rustan, K., Leino, M.: Dafny: An automatic program verifier for functional correctness. In: International Conference on Logic for Programming Artificial Intelligence and Reasoning, pp. 348–370. Springer (2010)
Rustan, K., Leino, M., Moskal, M.: Usable auto-active verification. In: Usable Verification Workshop (2010)
McMillan, K.L.: Symbolic Model Checking. Kluwer, Dordrecht (1993)
Prasad, M.R., Biere, A., Gupta, A.: A survey of recent advances in SAT-based formal verification. STTT 7(2), 156–173 (2005)
Renault, E., Duret-Lutz, A., Kordon, F., Poitrenaud, D.: Variations of parallel explicit emptiness checks for generalized Büchi automata. Software Tools for Technology Transfer (STTT) (2017, this issue)
van Dijk, T., van de Pol J.: Sylvan: multi-core framework for decision diagrams. Software Tools for Technology Transfer (STTT) (2017, this issue)
Vardi, M.Y.: Automata-theoretic model checking revisited. In: 8th International Conference on Verification, Model Checking, and Abstract Interpretation (VMCAI). Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 4349, pp. 137–150. Springer (2007)
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all authors for their contributions and the reviewers of TACAS 2015 and of this special issue for their reviews.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Baier, C., Tinelli, C. Some advances in tools and algorithms for the construction and analysis of systems. Int J Softw Tools Technol Transfer 19, 649–652 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10009-017-0471-4
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10009-017-0471-4