Checking Application Level Properties Using Assertion Synthesis

This work presents a proof-of-concept of a new approach on automatic generation of digital hardware that is able to check application-level properties of an embedded system such as a faulty system behavior at runtime. The approach makes use of assertion-based verification setups that today are very common in the area of digital hardware design with, however, the sole focus on logic simulation. Thus, a PSL-to-VHDL compiler is introduced that generates VHDL (Very High Speed Integrated Circuit Description Language) code out of PSL (Property Specification Language) assertions which can be further processed by a traditional digital logic synthesis tool. That way, runtime checker units can be automatically generated with little effort because of the already existing assertion-based test benches. Furthermore, a model railway demonstrator is presented herein as an example for a safety-critical application to prove the proposed tool flow on a use case. Implementation results based on that use case are discussed. Finally, the paper concludes with a brief outlook on related future work of the authors.