Abstract
In the design of dependable software for embedded and real-time operating systems, time analysis is a crucial but extremely difficult issue, the challenge of which is exacerbated due to the randomness and nondeterminism of interrupt handling behaviors. Thus research into a theory that integrates interrupt behaviors and time analysis seems to be important and challenging. In this paper, we present a programming language to describe programs with interrupts that is comprised of two essential parts: main program and interrupt handling programs.We also explore a timed operational semantics and a denotational semantics to specify the meanings of our language. Furthermore, a strategy of deriving denotational semantics from the timed operational semantics is provided to demonstrate the soundness of our operational semantics by showing the consistency between the derived denotational semantics and the original denotational semantics.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Regehra J. Safe and Structured Use of Interrupts in Real-time and Embedded Software. Handbook of Real-Time and Embedded Systems, CRC Press. 2007, 1–15
Tarski A. A Lattice-theoretical fixpoint theorem and its applications. Pacific Journal of Mathematics, 1955, 5(2): 285–309
Hills T. Structured interrupts. ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review, 1993, 27: 51–68
Regehra J, Cooprider N. Interrupt verification via thread verification. Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science, 2007, 174(9): 139–150
Feng X, Shao Z, Guo Y, Dong Y. Certifying low-level programs with hardware interrupts and preemptive threads. Journal of Automated Reasoning, 2009, 42: 301–347
Leslie I, McAuley D, Black R, Roscoe T, Barham P, Evers D, Fairbairns R, Hyden E. The design and implementation of an operating system to support distributed multimedia applications. IEEE Journal of Selected Areas in Communications, 1996, 14: 1280–1297
Kleiman S, Eykholt J. Interrupts as threads. ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review, 1995, 29: 21–26
Brylow D, Damgaard N, Palsberg J. Static checking of interrupt-driven software. In: Proceedings of International Conference on Software Engineering. 2001, 47–56
Palsberg J, Ma D. A typed interrupt calculus. In: Proceedings of the 7th International Symposium on Formal Techniques in Real-Time and Fault Tolerant Systems. 2002, 291–310
Chatterjee K, Ma D, Majumdar R, Zhao T, Henzinger T A, Palsberg J. Stack size analysis for interrupt-driven programs. In: Proceedings of International Static Analysis Symposium. 2003, 109–126
Brylow D, Palsberg J. Deadline analysis of interrupt-driven software. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 2004, 30: 634–655
Bérard B, Haddad S. Interrupt timed automata. In: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Foundations of Software Science and Computation Structures. 2009, 197–211
Bérard B, Haddad S, Sassolas M. Real time properties for interrupt timed automata. In: Proceedings of the 17th International Symposium on Temporal Representation and Reasoning. 2010, 69–76
Bérard B, Haddad S, Sassolas M. Interrupt timed automata: verification and expressiveness. In: Proceedings of Formal Methods in System Design. 2012, 41–87
Li G, Yuen S, Adachi M. Environmental simulation of real-time systems with nested interrupts. In: Proceedings of the 3rd IEEE International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Software Engineering. 2009, 21–28.
Baeten J C M, Bergstra J A, Klop J W. Syntax and defining equations for an interrupt mechanism in process algebra. Fundamenta Information IX(2), 1986, 9: 127–168
Diertens B. New Features in PSF I - Interrupts, Disrupts, and Priorities. Report P9417, Programming Research Group - University of Amsterdam. 1994, 5–17
Engels A, Cobben T. Interrupt and disrupt in MSC: possibilities and problems. In: Proceedings of the 1st Workshop of the SDL Forum Society on SDL and MSC. 1998, 1–4
Hoare C A R. Communicating Sequential Processes. Prentice Hall, 1985
Hoare C A R, He J. Unifying Theories of Programming. Prentice Hall, 1998
Hoare C A R, He J. From algebra to operational semantics. Information Process Letter, 1993, 45: 75–80
Brookes S. Full abstraction for a shared-variable parallel language. Information and Computation, 1996, 127: 145–163
Bakker J, Vink E. Control flow semantics. The MIT Press, 1996
Hartog J. Probabilistic extensions of semantic models. Dissertation for PhD Degree, Vrije University, The Netherlands, 2002
Hartog J, Vink E. Mixing up nondeterminism and probability: a preliminary report. Electrontic Notes Theoretical Computer Science, 1999, 22: 88–110
Hartog J, Vink E, Bakker J. Metric semantics and full abstractness for action refinement and probabilistic choice. Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science, 2001, 40: 72–99
Hartog J, Vink E. Verifying probabilistic programs using a Hoare like logic. International Journal of Foundations of Computer Science, 2002, 13: 315–340
Zhu H, Bowen J P, He J. From operational semantics to denotational semantics for Verilog. In: Proceedings of the 11th Advanced Research Working Conference on Correct Hardware Design and Verification Methods. 2001, 449–464
Zhu H, He J, Li J, Pu G, Bowen J P. Linking denotational semantics with operational semantics for web services. Innvoations Systems and Software Engineering, 2010, 6: 283–298
Zhu H, Yang F, He J, Bowen J P, Sanders J W, Qin S. Linking operational semantics and algebraic semantics for a probabilistic timed shared-variable language. The Journal of Logic and Algebraic Programming, 2012, 81: 2–25
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Yanhong Huang is an assistant researcher in the National Trusted Embedded Software Engineering Technology Research Center and Software Engineering Institute, East China Normal University. She received her PhD from East China Normal University, China, in 2014. Her research focuses on formal methods, semantics theory, analysis, and verification of embedded systems.
Jifeng He is a professor and the Dean of Software Engineering Institute, East China Normal University. He is an academician of the Chinese academy of Sciences. He has been appointed as the chief scientist for several projects of National Natural Science Foundation of China and 973 program. He was also appointed as the leader of the creative research group of the National Natural Science Foundation of China. His recent work focuses on mathematical models for the co-design of software and hardware, design of real-time embedded systems, and cyber physical systems.
Huibiao Zhu is a professor of the Software Engineering Institute, East China Normal University, and is the executive deputy director of Shanghai Key Laboratory of Trustworthy Computing. He received his PhD in formal methods from London South Bank University in 2005. He has studied various semantics and their linking theories for Verilog, SystemC, Web services and probability systems. Currently he is the Chinese PI of the Sino-Danish Basic Research Center IDEA4CPS.
Yongxin Zhao is an associate professor of the Software Engineering Institute, East China Normal University. He was a postdoc in School of Computing of National University of Singapore, Singapore from 2012 to 2014. His research interests include program analysis and verification, semantics theory,Web services, and formal methods and he has more than 28 refereed publications.
Jianqi Shi received his PhD from East China Normal University, China, in 2012. He is an associate researcher of National Trusted Embedded Software Engineering Technology Research Center and East China Normal University. His research interests cover formal verification, binary code analysis, parallel computing, and mobile device security.
Shengchao Qin’s research interests lie mainly in formal methods, software engineering and programming languages, in particular, formal specification and modelling, program analysis and verification, programming theories, program logic such as separation logic. He has published more than 70 papers in international journals and peer-refereed international conferences.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Huang, Y., He, J., Zhu, H. et al. Semantic theories of programs with nested interrupts. Front. Comput. Sci. 9, 331–345 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11704-015-3251-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11704-015-3251-x