Satisfiability checking of non-clausal formulas using general matings

Abstract

Most state-of-the-art SAT solvers are based on DPLL search and require the input formula to be in clausal form (cnf). However, typical formulas that arise in practice are non-clausal. We present a new non-clausal SAT-solver based on General Matings instead of DPLL search. Our technique is able to handle non-clausal formulas involving Λ, V, ¬ operators without destroying their structure or introducing new variables. We present techniques for performing search space pruning, learning, non-chronological backtracking in the context of a General Matings based SAT solver. Experimental results show that our SAT solver is competitive to current state-of-the-art SAT solvers on a class of non-clausal benchmarks. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.