SAT-Based Predicate Abstraction of Programs

Component Formal Reasoning Technology, ComFoRT, is a model-checking-based approach for analysis of component-based software designs. ComFoRT is designed to be used in a prediction-enabled component technology (PECT). A PECT provides a means to reliably predict the runtime qualities (e.g., performance and reliability) of assemblies of components from their certifiable properties (e.g., execution time and behavioral descriptions). ComFoRT uses an abstraction-based approach to cope with the complexity of analysis by reducing the size of the program models to be analyzed. This note presents technical details of a SAT-based predicate abstraction technique used in ComFoRT. The main advantage of the SAT-based method over conventional predicate abstraction techniques is that it does not require an exponential number of theorem prover calls for computing an abstract model. Additionally, the SAT-based approach computes a more precise and safe abstraction compared to existing predicate abstraction methods.

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Authors

Edmund Clarke

Daniel Kroening

Karen Yorav (IBM)

This report is related to the following area(s) of work:

Predictability by Construction

Technical Report
CMU/SEI-2005-TR-006
September 2005

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