Automated test vector generation from Rosetta requirements

Abstract

Formal high-level specifications are increasingly being used when designing systems. There are a number of advantages to this approach, an important one being the validation of the system against the original specifications. This aspect of specifications gains increasing importance as the designers design systems at higher levels of abstraction. From initial designs at these high levels of abstraction, the system goes through many stages of refinement before finally emerging as a product. Therefore, it is critical to ensure that the final product is what was first intended to be built. We describe an automated approach to validating systems using axiomatic specifications and simulation. Specifically, we describe the generation of test scenarios from Rosetta specifications, which are then combined with test requirements to generate abstract test vectors. These abstract test vectors can directly be translated to specific inputs to simulation runs, and the outputs generated during these runs can be checked against the acceptance criteria generated from the specifications.