Approximate Invariant Property Checking Using Term-Height Reduction for a Subset of First-Order Logic

Abstract

The use of a subset of first-order logic, called EUF, in model checking can be an effective abstraction technique for verifying larger and more complicated systems. The EUF model checking problem is, however, undecidable. In this paper, in order to guarantee the termination of state enumeration in the EUF-based model checking, we introduce a technique called term-height reduction. This technique is used to generate a finitely represented over-approximate set of states including all the reachable states. By checking a specified invariant property for this over-approximate set of states, we can safely assure that the invariant property always holds for the design, when verification succeeds. We also show some experimental results for a simple C program and a DSP design.