Predicate Abstraction with Indexed Predicates

Predicate abstraction provides a powerful tool for verifying properties of infinite-state systems using a combination of a decision procedure for a subset of first-order logic and symbolic methods originally developed for finite-state model checking. We consider models containing first-order state variables, where the system state includes mutable functions and predicates. Such a model can describe systems containing arbitrarily large memories, buffers, and arrays of identical processes. We describe a form of predicate abstraction that constructs a formula over a set of universally quantified variables to describe invariant properties of the first-order state variables. We provide a formal justification of the soundness of our approach and describe how it has been used to verify several hardware and software designs, including a directory-based cache coherence protocol.Comment: 27 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, short version appeared in International Conference on Verification, Model Checking and Abstract Interpretation (VMCAI'04), LNCS 2937, pages = 267--28

Combining k-Induction with Continuously-Refined Invariants

Bounded model checking (BMC) is a well-known and successful technique for finding bugs in software. k-induction is an approach to extend BMC-based approaches from falsification to verification. Automatically generated auxiliary invariants can be used to strengthen the induction hypothesis. We improve this approach and further increase effectiveness and efficiency in the following way: we start with light-weight invariants and refine these invariants continuously during the analysis. We present and evaluate an implementation of our approach in the open-source verification-framework CPAchecker. Our experiments show that combining k-induction with continuously-refined invariants significantly increases effectiveness and efficiency, and outperforms all existing implementations of k-induction-based software verification in terms of successful verification results.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables, 2 algorithm

PKind: A parallel k-induction based model checker

PKind is a novel parallel k-induction-based model checker of invariant properties for finite- or infinite-state Lustre programs. Its architecture, which is strictly message-based, is designed to minimize synchronization delays and easily accommodate the incorporation of incremental invariant generators to enhance basic k-induction. We describe PKind's functionality and main features, and present experimental evidence that PKind significantly speeds up the verification of safety properties and, due to incremental invariant generation, also considerably increases the number of provable ones.Comment: In Proceedings PDMC 2011, arXiv:1111.006

Sciduction: Combining Induction, Deduction, and Structure for Verification and Synthesis

Even with impressive advances in automated formal methods, certain problems in system verification and synthesis remain challenging. Examples include the verification of quantitative properties of software involving constraints on timing and energy consumption, and the automatic synthesis of systems from specifications. The major challenges include environment modeling, incompleteness in specifications, and the complexity of underlying decision problems. This position paper proposes sciduction, an approach to tackle these challenges by integrating inductive inference, deductive reasoning, and structure hypotheses. Deductive reasoning, which leads from general rules or concepts to conclusions about specific problem instances, includes techniques such as logical inference and constraint solving. Inductive inference, which generalizes from specific instances to yield a concept, includes algorithmic learning from examples. Structure hypotheses are used to define the class of artifacts, such as invariants or program fragments, generated during verification or synthesis. Sciduction constrains inductive and deductive reasoning using structure hypotheses, and actively combines inductive and deductive reasoning: for instance, deductive techniques generate examples for learning, and inductive reasoning is used to guide the deductive engines. We illustrate this approach with three applications: (i) timing analysis of software; (ii) synthesis of loop-free programs, and (iii) controller synthesis for hybrid systems. Some future applications are also discussed

The JKind Model Checker

JKind is an open-source industrial model checker developed by Rockwell Collins and the University of Minnesota. JKind uses multiple parallel engines to prove or falsify safety properties of infinite state models. It is portable, easy to install, performance competitive with other state-of-the-art model checkers, and has features designed to improve the results presented to users: inductive validity cores for proofs and counterexample smoothing for test-case generation. It serves as the back-end for various industrial applications.Comment: CAV 201

Using Flow Specifications of Parameterized Cache Coherence Protocols for Verifying Deadlock Freedom

We consider the problem of verifying deadlock freedom for symmetric cache coherence protocols. In particular, we focus on a specific form of deadlock which is useful for the cache coherence protocol domain and consistent with the internal definition of deadlock in the Murphi model checker: we refer to this deadlock as a system- wide deadlock (s-deadlock). In s-deadlock, the entire system gets blocked and is unable to make any transition. Cache coherence protocols consist of N symmetric cache agents, where N is an unbounded parameter; thus the verification of s-deadlock freedom is naturally a parameterized verification problem. Parametrized verification techniques work by using sound abstractions to reduce the unbounded model to a bounded model. Efficient abstractions which work well for industrial scale protocols typically bound the model by replacing the state of most of the agents by an abstract environment, while keeping just one or two agents as is. However, leveraging such efficient abstractions becomes a challenge for s-deadlock: a violation of s-deadlock is a state in which the transitions of all of the unbounded number of agents cannot occur and so a simple abstraction like the one above will not preserve this violation. In this work we address this challenge by presenting a technique which leverages high-level information about the protocols, in the form of message sequence dia- grams referred to as flows, for constructing invariants that are collectively stronger than s-deadlock. Efficient abstractions can be constructed to verify these invariants. We successfully verify the German and Flash protocols using our technique

Distilling Abstract Machines (Long Version)

It is well-known that many environment-based abstract machines can be seen as strategies in lambda calculi with explicit substitutions (ES). Recently, graphical syntaxes and linear logic led to the linear substitution calculus (LSC), a new approach to ES that is halfway between big-step calculi and traditional calculi with ES. This paper studies the relationship between the LSC and environment-based abstract machines. While traditional calculi with ES simulate abstract machines, the LSC rather distills them: some transitions are simulated while others vanish, as they map to a notion of structural congruence. The distillation process unveils that abstract machines in fact implement weak linear head reduction, a notion of evaluation having a central role in the theory of linear logic. We show that such a pattern applies uniformly in call-by-name, call-by-value, and call-by-need, catching many machines in the literature. We start by distilling the KAM, the CEK, and the ZINC, and then provide simplified versions of the SECD, the lazy KAM, and Sestoft's machine. Along the way we also introduce some new machines with global environments. Moreover, we show that distillation preserves the time complexity of the executions, i.e. the LSC is a complexity-preserving abstraction of abstract machines.Comment: 63 page

Relational Parametricity and Separation Logic

Separation logic is a recent extension of Hoare logic for reasoning about programs with references to shared mutable data structures. In this paper, we provide a new interpretation of the logic for a programming language with higher types. Our interpretation is based on Reynolds's relational parametricity, and it provides a formal connection between separation logic and data abstraction