Convergence Testing in Term-Level Bounded Model Checking

We consider the problem of bounded model checking of systems expressed in a decidable fragment of first-order logic. While model checking is not guaranteed to terminate for an arbitrary system, it converges for many practical examples, including pipelined processors. We give a new formal definition of convergence that generalizes previously stated criteria. We also give a sound semidecision procedure to check this criterion based on a translation to quantified separation logic. Preliminary results on simple pipeline processor models are presented. This research was supported in part by the Semiconductor Research Corporation, Contract RID 1029 and by ARO grant DAAD 19-01-1-0485. The U.S. Government is authorized to reproduce and distribute reprints for Governmental purposes notwithstanding any copyright annotation thereon. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors, and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies or endorsements, either expressed or implied, of the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.