8 research outputs found
Formal methods and tools for the development of distributed and real time systems : Esprit Project 3096 (SPEC)
The Basic Research Action No. 3096, Formal Methods snd Tools for the Development of Distributed and Real Time Systems, is funded in the Area of Computer Science, under the ESPRIT Programme of the European Community. The coordinating institution is the Department of Computing Science, Eindhoven University of Technology, and the participating Institutions are the Institute of Computer Science of Crete. the Swedish Institute of Computer Science, the Programmimg Research Group of the University of Oxford, and the Computer Science Departments of the University of Manchester, Imperial
College. Weizmann Institute of Science, Eindhoven University of Technology, IMAG Grenoble. Catholic University of Nijmegen, and the University of Liege. This document contains the synopsis. and part of the sections on objectives and area of advance, on baseline and rationale, on research goals, and on organisation of the action, as contained in the original proposal, submitted June, 198S. The section on the state of the art (18 pages) and the full list of references (21 pages) of the original proposal have been deleted because of limitation of available space
Formal Methods Specification and Analysis Guidebook for the Verification of Software and Computer Systems
This guidebook, the second of a two-volume series, is intended to facilitate the transfer of formal methods to the avionics and aerospace community. The 1st volume concentrates on administrative and planning issues [NASA-95a], and the second volume focuses on the technical issues involved in applying formal methods to avionics and aerospace software systems. Hereafter, the term "guidebook" refers exclusively to the second volume of the series. The title of this second volume, A Practitioner's Companion, conveys its intent. The guidebook is written primarily for the nonexpert and requires little or no prior experience with formal methods techniques and tools. However, it does attempt to distill some of the more subtle ingredients in the productive application of formal methods. To the extent that it succeeds, those conversant with formal methods will also nd the guidebook useful. The discussion is illustrated through the development of a realistic example, relevant fragments of which appear in each chapter. The guidebook focuses primarily on the use of formal methods for analysis of requirements and high-level design, the stages at which formal methods have been most productively applied. Although much of the discussion applies to low-level design and implementation, the guidebook does not discuss issues involved in the later life cycle application of formal methods
Formal modelling and analysis of broadcasting embedded control systems
PhD ThesisEmbedded systems are real-time, communicating systems, and the effective
modelling and analysis of these aspects of their behaviour is regarded as essential
for acquiring confidence in their correct operation. In practice, it is important
to minimise the burden of model construction and to automate the analysis,
if possible. Among the most promising techniques for real-time systems are
reachability analysis and model-checking of networks of timed automata. We
identify two obstacles to the application of these techniques to a large class of
distributed embedded systems: firstly, the language of timed automata is too
low-level for straightforward model construction, and secondly, the synchronous,
handshake communication mechanism of the timed automata model does not fit
well with the asynchronous, broadcast mechanism employed in many distributed
embedded systems. As a result, the task of model construction can be unduly
onerous.
This dissertation proposes an expressive language for the construction of
models of real-time, broadcasting control systems, and demonstrates how effi-
cient analysis techniques can be applied to them.
The dissertation is concerned in particular with the Controller Area Network
(CAN) protocol which is emerging as a de facto standard in the automotive
industry. An abstract formal model of CAN is developed. This model is adopted
as the communication primitive in a new language, bCANDLE, which includes
value passing, broadcast communication, message priorities and explicit time.
A high-level language, CANDLE, is introduced and its semantics defined by
translation to bCANDLE. We show how realistic CAN systems can be described
in CANDLE and how a timed transition model of a system can be extracted for
analysis. Finally, it is shown how efficient methods of analysis, such as 'on-the-
fly' and symbolic techniques, can be applied to these models. The dissertation
contributes to the practical application of formal methods within the domain
of broadcasting, embedded control systemsSchool of Computing and Mathematics at the University of Northumbri