From Pre-historic to Post-modern Symbolic Model Checking

Symbolic model checking, which enables the automatic verification of large systems, proceeds by calculating with expressions that represent state sets. Traditionally, symbolic model-checking tools arc based on backward state traversal; their basic operation is the function pre, which given a set of states, returns the set of all predecessor states. This is because specifiers usally employ formalisms with future-time modalities. which are naturally evaluated by iterating applications of pre. It has been recently shown experimentally that symbolic model checking can perform significantly better if it is based, instead, on forward state traversal; in this case, the basic operation is the function post, which given a set of states, returns the set of all successor states. This is because forward state traversal can ensure that only those parts of the state space are explored which are reachable from an initial state and relevant for satisfaction or violation of the specification; that is, errors can be detected as soon as possible.

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