A lightweight integration of theorem proving and model checking for system verification

Abstract

Theorem proving and model checking are known as two formal verification techniques that have complementary features. In this paper, we describe a lightweight integration of the two techniques by a translation from theorem proving formalism to model checking formalism, and then treating model checking as part of the decision procedure. In the translation, system and property specifications defined for a theorem prover can be automatically translated to specifications feedable to a model checker after a simple data abstraction. The main aim of this integration is to provide the theorem prover with automatic counter-example generating capability, thus to be able to find "bugs" in the early stage of theorem proving and ease the hard-work of doing theorem proving. A case study is used to demonstrate how this translation works and what the verification flow is when using this integration to do system verification.