On Exploiting Passing and Failing Test Cases in Debugging Hardware Description Languages

In this manuscript, we outline how to use test suites for software debugging of hardware description languages. We propose an algorithmic improvement for dealing with numerous failing test cases and show how to exploit passing test cases in terms of a technique called filtering. We report on results obtained on a well-known benchmark suite. The results clearly show that both passing and failing tests are capable of increasing the diagnoses accuracy in the field of software debugging. Model-based debugging; software debugging; debugging of hardware description languages; fault isolation.

[1]  Michael J. C. Gordon,et al.  Relating Event and Trace Semantics of Hardware Description Languages , 2002, Comput. J..

[2]  Johan de Kleer,et al.  Characterizing Non-Intermittent Faults , 1991, AAAI.

[3]  Raymond Reiter,et al.  A Theory of Diagnosis from First Principles , 1986, Artif. Intell..

[4]  Gregory M. Provan,et al.  Approximate Model-Based Diagnosis Using Greedy Stochastic Search , 2007, SARA.

[5]  Zainalabedin Navabi,et al.  VHDL: Analysis and Modeling of Digital Systems , 1992 .

[6]  Bernhard Peischl,et al.  Business Intelligence in Software Quality Monitoring: Experiences and Lessons Learnt from an Industrial Case Study , 2014, SWQD.

[7]  Bernhard Peischl.  Using Filtering to Improve Value-Level Debugging of Verilog Designs , 2013 .

[8]  Andreas Veneris,et al.  Design diagnosis using Boolean satisfiability , 2004 .

[9]  Alexander Finder,et al.  Evaluating Debugging Algorithms from a Qualitative Perspective , 2010, FDL.

[10]  Rui Abreu,et al.  A Low-Cost Approximate Minimal Hitting Set Algorithm and its Application to Model-Based Diagnosis , 2009, SARA.

[11]  Franz Wotawa.  Debugging Hardware Designs Using a Value-Based Model , 2004, Applied Intelligence.

[12]  D. I. Cheng,et al.  Error Diagnosis for Transistor-Level Verification , 1994, 31st Design Automation Conference.

[13]  D. M. H. Walker,et al.  Simulation-based design error diagnosis and correction in combinational digital circuits , 1999, Proceedings 17th IEEE VLSI Test Symposium (Cat. No.PR00146).

[14]  James Bailey,et al.  Discovery of Minimal Unsatisfiable Subsets of Constraints Using Hitting Set Dualization , 2005, PADL.

[15]  Markus Stumptner,et al.  Model-Based Debugging using Multiple Abstract Models , 2003, ArXiv.

[16]  Shi-Yu Huang,et al.  Fault-simulation based design error diagnosis for sequential circuits , 1998, DAC.

[17]  Franz Wotawa,et al.  Model-Based Diagnosis or Reasoning from First Principles , 2003, IEEE Intell. Syst..

[18]  Naveed Riaz,et al.  Automated Debugging of Verilog Designs , 2012, Int. J. Softw. Eng. Knowl. Eng..

[19]  Luigi Lavazza,et al.  Software Process Measurement in the Real World: Dealing with Operating Constraints , 2006, SPW/ProSim.

[20]  David Bryan,et al.  Combinational profiles of sequential benchmark circuits , 1989, IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems,.

[21]  Tsutomu Ishida,et al.  Metrics and Models in Software Quality Engineering , 1995 .

[22]  Franz Wotawa,et al.  Applying Model-Based Diagnosis to Software Debugging of Concurrent and Sequential Imperative Programming Languages , 1996 .

[23]  Vamsi Boppana,et al.  Fault diagnosis using state information , 1996, Proceedings of Annual Symposium on Fault Tolerant Computing.

[24]  A.J.C. van Gemund,et al.  On the Accuracy of Spectrum-based Fault Localization , 2007, Testing: Academic and Industrial Conference Practice and Research Techniques - MUTATION (TAICPART-MUTATION 2007).

[25]  Yves Le Traon,et al.  Improving test suites for efficient fault localization , 2006, ICSE.

[26]  Franz Wotawa,et al.  Automated source-level error localization in hardware designs , 2006, IEEE Design & Test of Computers.

[27]  张路,et al.  Interactive Fault Localization Using Test Information , 2009 .

[28]  Raymond Reiter,et al.  Characterizing Diagnoses , 1990, AAAI.

[29]  Jinbo Huang,et al.  Sequential Diagnosis by Abstraction , 2011, J. Artif. Intell. Res..

[30]  Hiroshi Takahashi,et al.  Simulation-based diagnosis for crosstalk faults in sequential circuits , 2001, Proceedings 10th Asian Test Symposium.

[31]  Russell Greiner,et al.  A Correction to the Algorithm in Reiter's Theory of Diagnosis , 1989, Artif. Intell..

[32]  Wilhelm Ackermann,et al.  Solvable Cases Of The Decision Problem , 1954 .

[33]  Franz Wotawa,et al.  Error traces in model-based debugging of hardware description languages , 2005, AADEBUG'05.

[34]  Michael I. Jordan,et al.  Scalable statistical bug isolation , 2005, PLDI '05.

[35]  Mary Jean Harrold,et al.  An empirical study of the effects of test-suite reduction on fault localization , 2008, 2008 ACM/IEEE 30th International Conference on Software Engineering.

[36]  Gregory M. Provan,et al.  A Model-Based Active Testing Approach to Sequential Diagnosis , 2010, J. Artif. Intell. Res..