Towards Interoperable Mechanized Reasoning Systems: the Logic Broker Architecture

There is a growing interest in the integration of mechanized reasoning systems such as automated theorem provers, computer algebra systems, and model checkers. State-of-the-art reasoning systems are the result of many man-years of careful development and engineering, and usually they provide a high degree of sophistication in their respective domain. Yet they often perform poorly when applied outside the domain they have been designed for. The problem of integrating mechanized reasoning systems is therefore being perceived as an important issue in automated reasoning. In this paper we present the Logic Broker Architecture, a framework which provides the needed infrastructure for making mechanized reasoning systems interoperate. The architecture provides location transparency, a way to forward requests for logical services to appropriate reasoning systems via a simple registration/subscription mechanism, and a translation mechanism which ensures the transparent and provably sound exchange of logical services.