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Real-time specifications

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Abstract

A specification theory combines notions of specifications and implementations with a satisfaction relation, a refinement relation, and a set of operators supporting stepwise design. We develop a specification framework for real-time systems using Timed I/O Automata as the specification formalism, with the semantics expressed in terms of Timed I/O Transition Systems. We provide constructs for refinement, consistency checking, logical and structural composition, and quotient of specifications—all indispensable ingredients of a compositional design methodology. The theory is implemented in the new tool Ecdar. We present symbolic versions of the algorithms used in Ecdar, and demonstrate the use of the tool using a small case study in compositional verification.

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Notes

  1. The quotient generates components that cannot be displayed in the GUI.

  2. Ecdar borrows from Uppaal the syntactic constructs to obtain this effect conveniently: urgent locations and urgent channels.

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Acknowledgments

This work was partially supported by VKR Centre of Excellence–MT-LAB, the European project COMBEST, and ARC (TP)I.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Science, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

    Alexandre David, Kim G. Larsen & Ulrik Nyman

  2. INRIA/IRISA, Rennes Cedex, France

    Axel Legay & Louis-Marie Traonouez

  3. IT University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Andrzej Wąsowski

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  1. Alexandre David
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  2. Kim G. Larsen
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  3. Axel Legay
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  4. Ulrik Nyman
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  5. Louis-Marie Traonouez
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  6. Andrzej Wąsowski
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Axel Legay.

Additional information

This paper is an extended version of the work previously presented in [23,24,25]. The main additions are (1) a unified presentation, (2) a deeper link between the theory and the tool, (3) proofs of theorems, and (4) the description of case studies.

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David, A., Larsen, K.G., Legay, A. et al. Real-time specifications. Int J Softw Tools Technol Transfer 17, 17–45 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10009-013-0286-x

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