Industrial-strength Tools Research Articles

VOSsim: A Framework for Enabling Fast Voltage Overscaling Simulation for Approximate Computing Circuits

Approximate computing emerges as a new design paradigm for generating energy-efficient computing systems. Voltage overscaling (VOS) forms a very promising technique to generate approximate circuits, and its application in cooperation to other approximate techniques is proven to lead to more efficient solutions. However, the existing design tools fail to provide effective voltage-aware simulation for early exploration of power-error approximate design tradeoffs. In this brief, we propose VOSsim, a framework that extends state-of-the-art industry strength tools, to enable fast and accurate simulations of voltage overscaled circuits. We extensively evaluate VOSsim showing that it attains 99.2% output and 98.4% power accuracy, with an average speedup of $32\times $ in simulation time compared to high-precision SPICE simulations, i.e., the only available solution today for VOS-aware simulation.

SATMC: a SAT-based model checker for security protocols, business processes, and security APIs

We present SATMC 3.0, a SAT-based bounded model checker for security-critical systems that stems from a successful combination of encoding techniques originally developed for planning with techniques developed for the analysis of reactive systems. SATMC has been successfully applied in a variety of application domains (security protocols, security-sensitive business processes, and cryptographic APIs) and for different purposes (design-time security analysis and security testing). SATMC strikes a balance between general purpose model checkers and security protocol analyzers as witnessed by a number of important success stories including the discovery of a serious man-in-the-middle attack on the SAML-based single sign-on (SSO) for Google Apps, an authentication flaw in the SAML 2.0 Web Browser SSO Profile, and a number of attacks on PKCS#11 Security Tokens. SATMC is integrated and used as back-end in a number of research prototypes (e.g., the AVISPA Tool, Tookan, the SPaCIoS Tool) and industrial-strength tools (e.g., the Security Validator plugin for SAP NetWeaver BPM).

An abstract interpretation framework for refactoring with application to extract methods with contracts

Method extraction is a common refactoring feature provided by most modern IDEs. It replaces a user-selected piece of code with a call to an automatically generated method. We address the problem of automatically inferring contracts (precondition, postcondition) for the extracted method. We require the inferred contract: (a) to be valid for the extracted method (validity); (b) to guard the language and programmer assertions in the body of the extracted method by an opportune precondition (safety); (c) to preserve the proof of correctness of the original code when analyzing the new method separately (completeness); and (d) to be the most general possible (generality). These requirements rule out trivial solutions (e.g., inlining, projection, etc). We propose two theoretical solutions to the problem. The first one is simple and optimal. It is valid, safe, complete and general but unfortunately not effectively computable (except for unrealistic finiteness/decidability hypotheses). The second one is based on an iterative forward/backward method. We show it to be valid, safe, and, under reasonable assumptions, complete and general. We prove that the second solution subsumes the first. All justifications are provided with respect to a new, set-theoretic version of Hoare logic (hence without logic), and abstractions of Hoare logic, revisited to avoid surprisingly unsound inference rules. We have implemented the new algorithms on the top of two industrial-strength tools (CCCheck and the Microsoft Roslyn CTP). Our experience shows that the analysis is both fast enough to be used in an interactive environment and precise enough to generate good annotations.

Real-time Avionics Optimization

Abstract We report on the solution of a difficult optimization problem which arises in avionics industry. When constructing the on-board controlling-network of an airplane, the engineers need to solve a computationally highly complex problem. The goal is to assign periodic tasks to the processors on the plane and define a schedule for each processor. Current state-of-the-art approaches to tackle the problem are by far not powerful enough to solve instances of real-world size. With the help of the powerful algorithm engineering paradigm we analyzed the mathematical properties of the scheduling problem and designed sophisticated software based on the structural insights. We were able to design a model that outperformed current state-of-the-art approaches by several orders of magnitude. In particular, we could solve industrial size real-world instances to optimality. Our methods lead, for the first time, to an industrial strength tool to schedule aircraft sized instances.

The overture initiative integrating tools for VDM

Overture is a community-based initiative that aims to develop a common open-source platform integrating a range of tools for constructing and analysing formal models of systems using VDM. The mission is to both provide an industrial-strength tool set for VDM and also to provide an environment that allows researchers and other stakeholders to experiment with modifications and extensions to the tools and language. This paper presents the current status and future vision of the Overture project.

An entrepreneurial approach to project-based courses

A senior project course is often employed to expose students to industrial problems and teamwork. Students are expected to use industrial strength tools to deal with issues such as requirements, design, process models, collaboration, management, testing, maintenance and more. In addition, the senior project often plays a large role in satisfying outcomes related to the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) accreditation process. The senior projects are often provided by the schools industry partners, however, this does not guarantee student interest and commitment. From the student's perspective, as the semester ends, so does the project. This study presents a case study for an alternative method to senior projects – an entrepreneurial approach that motivates students and aids with the ABET assessment process.

TAJ

Taint analysis, a form of information-flow analysis, establishes whether values from untrusted methods and parameters may flow into security-sensitive operations. Taint analysis can detect many common vulnerabilities in Web applications, and so has attracted much attention from both the research community and industry. However, most static taint-analysis tools do not address critical requirements for an industrial-strength tool. Specifically, an industrial-strength tool must scale to large industrial Web applications, model essential Web-application code artifacts, and generate consumable reports for a wide range of attack vectors. We have designed and implemented a static Taint Analysis for Java (TAJ) that meets the requirements of industry-level applications. TAJ can analyze applications of virtually any size, as it employs a set of techniques designed to produce useful answers given limited time and space. TAJ addresses a wide variety of attack vectors, with techniques to handle reflective calls, flow through containers, nested taint, and issues in generating useful reports. This paper provides a description of the algorithms comprising TAJ, evaluates TAJ against production-level benchmarks, and compares it with alternative solutions.

Practice-oriented courses in formal methods using VDM ++

Abstract We describe the design and delivery of two courses that aim to develop skills of use to students in their subsequent professional practice, whether or not they apply formal methods directly. Both courses emphasise skills in model construction and analysis by testing rather than formal verification. The accessibility of the formalism is enhanced by the use of established notations (VDM-SL and VDM ++ ). Motivation is improved by using credible examples drawn from industrial projects, and by using an industrial-strength tool set. We present examples from the courses and discuss student evaluation and examination performance. We stress the need for exercises and tests to support the development of abstraction skills.

Industrial tools for the feature location problem: an exploratory study

Software engineers who maintain and enhance large systems often encounter the feature location problem: where in the many thousands of lines of code is a particular user feature implemented? Several methods of addressing the problem have been proposed, most of which involve tracing the execution of the system and analyzing the traces. Some supporting academic tools are available. However, companies that depend on the successful evolution of large systems are more likely to use new methods if they are supported by industrial-strength tools of known reliability. This article describes a study performed with Motorola, Inc. to see whether there were any pitfalls in using Metrowerks CodeTEST and Klocwork inSight for feature location on message-passing software similar to systems that Motorola maintains. These two tools were combined with TraceGraph, an academic trace comparison tool. The study identified two main problems. First, some ‘glue’ code and workarounds were needed to get CodeTEST to generate a trace for an interval of time in which the feature was operating. Second, getting information out of TraceGraph and into inSight was needlessly complicated for a user. However, with a moderate amount of work, the tool combination was effective in locating, understanding and documenting features. Study participants completed these steps in typically 3–4 hours per feature, studying only a few hundred lines out of a 200 000 line system. An ongoing project with Motorola is focused on improving tool integration with the hope of making feature location common practice at Motorola. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

On the balance between theory and practice [software engineering curriculum

Undergraduate curricula must view it as a mandate to teach students how to effectively use logic and formal methods in software design, beginning with the first programming course. Both educational and industrial-strength tools are now available to support the implementation of this idea.

Formal modeling in a commercial setting: A case study

Formal modeling, particularly of software requirements, has long been advocated by the software engineering research community. Usually, such modeling is linked with formal verification and is confined to safety-critical projects where software correctness is the pivotal goal. In contrast, the software industry seeks practical techniques that can be seamlessly integrated into the existing processes and improve productivity; very high quality is often a desirable but not crucial objective. A number of modeling languages have been designed to address this issue, and some have industrial-strength tool support that can be used effectively in commercial settings. This paper describes a case study conducted in collaboration with Nortel Networks to demonstrate the economic feasibility and effectiveness of applying formal modeling techniques to telecommunication systems. A formal specification and description language (SDL) was chosen to model a multimedia-messaging system described by an 80-page natural-language specification. Our model was used to identify errors in the software requirements document and to derive test suites, shadowing the existing development process and keeping track of a variety of productivity data. Our results clearly show that it is possible to use formal modeling in the commercial setting effectively: we were able to locate a number of specification errors that were missed by several manual specification inspections, and used the model to derive the test cases that, by the time we left the project, doubled the number of errors discovered by Nortel testers. The formalization did not lengthen the overall time to market of this product.

Tool Support for Distributed Real-Time Software

Tool Support for Distributed Real-Time Software