Model-Based Program Debugging and Repair

The current state of the art in integrated circuit design is based on the use of special hardware design languages such as VHDL. In the context of the development of an intelligent, knowledge-based debugging aid for VHDL programs, we are dealing with analysis and diagnosis of a subset of VHDL (which is similar to conventional concurrent programming languages). We present an adaptation of conventional model-based diagnosis methods to the debugging of VHDL expressions and signal assignments. The examination of possible faults in VHDL expressions leads to the use of fault models (i.e., a representation of typical errors) as an aid to focusing, and as a basis for proposing repair actions for small errors in these programs.