Automatic fault localization for property checking

Abstract

We present an efficient, fully automatic approach to fault localization for safety properties stated in linear temporal logic. We view the failure as a contradiction between the specification and the actual behavior and look for components that explain this discrepancy. We find these components by solving the satisfiability of a propositional Boolean formula. We show how to construct this formula and how to extend it so that we find exactly those components that can be used to repair the circuit for a given set of counterexamples. Furthermore, we discuss how to efficiently solve the formula by using the proper decision heuristics and simulation based preprocessing. We demonstrate the quality and efficiency of our approach by experimental results. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.