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Quo Vadis Explicit-State Model Checking

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SOFSEM 2015: Theory and Practice of Computer Science (SOFSEM 2015)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 8939))

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Abstract

Model checking has always been the flag ship in the fleet of automated formal verification techniques. It has been in the center of interest of formal verification research community for more than 25 years. Focusing primarily on the well-known state space explosion problem, a decent amount of techniques and methods have been discovered and applied to push further the frontier of systems verifiable with a model checker. Still, the technique as such has not yet been matured enough to become a common part of a software development process, and its penetration into the software industry is actually much slower than it was expected. In this paper we take a closer look at the so called explicit-state model checking, we briefly recapitulate recent research achievements in the field, and report on practical experience obtained from using our explicit state model checker DIVINE. Our goal is to help the reader understand what is the current position of explicit-state model checking in general practice and what are the strengths and weaknesses of the explicit-state approach after almost three decades of research. Finally, we suggest some research directions to pursue that could shed some light on the future of this formal verification technique.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Informatics, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

    Jiří Barnat

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  1. Jiří Barnat
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133, Rome, Italy

    Giuseppe F. Italiano

  2. University of Limerick, Ireland

    Tiziana Margaria-Steffen

  3. Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

    Jaroslav Pokorný

  4. Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain, Belgium

    Jean-Jacques Quisquater

  5. ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Roger Wattenhofer

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Barnat, J. (2015). Quo Vadis Explicit-State Model Checking. In: Italiano, G.F., Margaria-Steffen, T., Pokorný, J., Quisquater, JJ., Wattenhofer, R. (eds) SOFSEM 2015: Theory and Practice of Computer Science. SOFSEM 2015. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8939. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-46078-8_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-46078-8_5

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