MIT Libraries homeMIT Libraries logoDSpace@MIT

MIT
View Item 
  • DSpace@MIT Home
  • MIT Libraries
  • MIT Theses
  • Doctoral Theses
  • View Item
  • DSpace@MIT Home
  • MIT Libraries
  • MIT Theses
  • Doctoral Theses
  • View Item
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

The Hob system for verifying software design properties

Author(s)
Lam, Patrick, Ph. D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Thumbnail
DownloadFull printable version (11.28Mb)
Other Contributors
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Advisor
Martin Rinard.
Terms of use
M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582
Metadata
Show full item record
Abstract
This dissertation introduces novel techniques for verifying that programs conform to their designs. My Hob system, as described in this dissertation, allows developers to statically ensure that implementations preserve certain specified properties. Hob verifies heap-based properties that can express important aspects of a program's design. The key insight behind my approach is that Hob can establish detailed software design properties--properties that lie beyond the reach of extant static analysis techniques due to scalability or precision issues-by focusing the verification task. In particular, the Hob approach applies scalable static analysis techniques to the majority of the modules of a program and very precise, unscalable, static analysis or automated theorem proving techniques to certain specific modules of that program: those that require the precision that such analyses can deliver. The use of assume/guarantee reasoning allows the analysis engine to harness the strengths of both scalable and precise static analysis techniques to analyze large programs (which would otherwise require scalable, imprecise analyses) with sufficient precision to establish detailed data structure consistency properties, e.g. heap shape properties.
 
(cont.) A set-based specification language enables the different analysis techniques to cooperate in verifying the specified design properties. My preliminary results show that it is possible to successfully verify detailed design-level properties of benchmark applications: I have used the Hob system to verify user-relevant properties of a water molecule simulator, a web server, and a minesweeper game. These properties constrain the behaviour of the program by stating that selected sets of objects are always equal or disjoint throughout the program's execution.
 
Description
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2007.
 
Includes bibliographical references (p. 157-164).
 
Date issued
2007
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/38688
Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Keywords
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Collections
  • Doctoral Theses

Browse

All of DSpaceCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

My Account

Login

Statistics

OA StatisticsStatistics by CountryStatistics by Department
MIT Libraries homeMIT Libraries logo

Find us on

Twitter Facebook Instagram YouTube RSS

MIT Libraries navigation

SearchHours & locationsBorrow & requestResearch supportAbout us
PrivacyPermissionsAccessibility
MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Content created by the MIT Libraries, CC BY-NC unless otherwise noted. Notify us about copyright concerns.