A hybrid SAT-based decision procedure for separation logic with uninterpreted functions

Abstract

SAT-based decision procedures for quantifier-free fragments of first-order logic have proved to be useful in formal verification. These decisions procedures are either based on encoding atomic subformulas with Boolean variables, or by encoding integer variables as bit-vectors. Based on evaluating these two encoding methods on a diverse set of hardware and software benchmarks, we conclude that neither method is robust to variations in formula characteristics. We therefore propose a new hybrid technique that combines the two methods. We give experimental results showing that the hybrid method can significantly outperform either approach as well as other decision procedures.