Modern computer systems are advancing from multi-core to many-core designs and System-on-chips (SoC) are becoming increasingly complex while integrating a great variety of components, thus constituting complex distributed systems. Such architectures rely on extremely complex communication protocols to exchange data with required performance. Arguing formally about the correctness of communication is an acknowledged verification challenge. This thesis presents a generic framework that formalises the idea of incremental modelling and step-wise verification to tackle this challenge: to control the overall complexity, features are added incrementally to a simple initial model and the complexity of each feature is encapsulated into an independent modelling step. Two main strategies reduce the verification effort. First, models are constructed with verification support in mind and the verification process is spread over the modelling process. Second, generic correctness results for framework components allow the verification to be reduced to discharging local assumptions when a component is instantiated. Models in the framework are based on abstract state machines formalised in higher order logic using the Isabelle theorem prover. Two case studies show the utility and breadth of the approach: the ARM AMBA Advanced High-performance Bus protocol, an arbiter-based master-slave bus protocol, represents the family of SoC protocols; the PCI Express protocol, an off-chip point-to-point protocol, illustrates the application of the framework to sophisticated, performance-related features of current and future on-chip protocols. The presented methodology provides an alternative to the traditional monolithic and post-hoc verification approach.

Thesis title: Burden of proving in disputes regarding damages The issue of providing evidence in disputes regarding damages is a theme involving many questions, whose legislation seems to be questionable in some cases. This aspect is compensated for and supplemented by application practise, which makes the theme continuously relevant. The aim of my diploma thesis is to provide a general, descriptive, and comprehensive interpretation of the specifics of providing evidence in disputes regarding damages. Another objective of this diploma thesis is to demonstrate that it is difficult to gain insight both in theoretical and in practical issues of the burden of proof because the opinions of courts and some of the authors specializing in this issue are different in some cases. The first part deals with the general notion of evidence in the civil procedure. I mention the concept and the subject of evidence and its importance in the civil procedure. I also mention selected legal principles connected with providing evidence. A further focus of this part is on procedural obligations of the parties, especially on the obligation of claims and of the burden of proof. It is based on theoretical concepts by significant authors (especially J. Macur). The burden of proof and the related institutes of providing...

This diploma thesis Gnoseological implication of law application inquires the epistemology of judicial decisions, known as proving. The work does not confine itself to mere law rules of proving before the court; rather it focuses on the comprehensive theory of the judicial cognition, which dwells in the proving law basis is not always clearly defined. These basis or axioms of law epistemology are to be exploited and clarified by our paper. Except the introduction and the final conclusion, the analyses are divided into four chapters. The chapter Prolegomena k teorii poznání explores the general cognition philosophy with references to the critical reflection of the (both empirical and rational) cognitional possibilities. It is supposed to be a source of the scrutiny of the special judicial cognition. The following chapter Specifika poznávání v právu uses the descriptive method to study the main characteristics of the specific judicial cognition as long as they differ from the characteristics of the general cognition. The comparison of the theoretical and real law approach is also given a consideration. The chapter Pragmatická doktrína is trying to provide integration as well as a generalization of the previous discoveries and in the conclusion it aims to provide clear and explicit gnoseological theory...

The role of representation in reasoning has been long and widely regarded as crucial. It has remained one of the fundamental considerations in the design of information-processing systems and, in particular, for computer systems that reason. However, the process of change and choice of representation has struggled to achieve a status as a task for the systems themselves. Instead, it has mostly remained a responsibility for the human designers and programmers. Many mathematical problems have the characteristic of being easy to solve only after a unique choice of representation has been made. In this thesis we examine two classes of problems in discrete mathematics which follow this pattern, in the light of automated and interactive mechanical theorem provers. We present a general notion of structural transformation, which accounts for the changes of representation seen in such problems, and link this notion to the existing Transfer mechanism in the interactive theorem prover Isabelle/HOL. We present our mechanisation in Isabelle/HOL of some specific transformations identified as key in the solutions of the aforementioned mathematical problems. Furthermore, we present some tools that we developed to extend the functionalities of the Transfer mechanism, designed with the specific purpose of searching efficiently the space of representations using our set of transformations. We describe some experiments that we carried out using these tools, and analyse these results in terms of how close the tools lead us to a solution, and how desirable these solutions are. The thorough qualitative analysis we present in this thesis reveals some promise as well as some challenges for the far-reaching problem of representation in reasoning, and the automation of the processes of change and choice of representation.

Graduation date: 1997

In this thesis we propose a formal framework for specifying and validating properties of software system architectures. The framework is founded on a model of software architecture description languages (ADLs) and uses a theorem-proving based approach to formally and mechanically establish properties of architectures. Our approach allows models defined using existing ADLs to be validated against properties that may not be expressible using the original notation and tool-set. The central component of the framework is a conceptual model of architecture description languages. The model formalizes a salient, shared set of design categories, relationships and constraints that are fundamental to these notations. An advantage of an approach based on a conceptual model is that it provides a uniform view of design information across a selection of languages. This allows us to construct alternate formal representations of design information specified using existing ADLs. These representations can then be mechanically validated to ensure they meet their specific formal requirements. After defining the model we embed it in the logic of the PVS theorem-proving environment and illustrate its utility with a case study. We first demonstrate how the elements of a design are specified using the model, and then show how this representation is validated using machine-assisted proof. Our approach allows the correctness of a design to be established against a wide range of properties. We illustrate with structural properties, behavioural properties, relationships between the structural and behavioural specification, and dynamic, or evolving aspects of a system's topology.

In this thesis we propose a formal framework for specifying and validating properties of software system architectures. The framework is founded on a model of software architecture description languages (ADLs) and uses a theorem-proving based approach to formally and mechanically establish properties of architectures. Our approach allows models defined using existing ADLs to be validated against properties that may not be expressible using the original notation and tool-set. The central component of the framework is a conceptual model of architecture description languages. The model formalizes a salient, shared set of design categories, relationships and constraints that are fundamental to these notations. An advantage of an approach based on a conceptual model is that it provides a uniform view of design information across a selection of languages. This allows us to construct alternate formal representations of design information specified using existing ADLs. These representations can then be mechanically validated to ensure they meet their specific formal requirements. After defining the model we embed it in the logic of the PVS theorem-proving environment and illustrate its utility with a case study. We first demonstrate how the elements of a design are specified using the model, and then show how this representation is validated using machine-assisted proof. Our approach allows the correctness of a design to be established against a wide range of properties. We illustrate with structural properties, behavioural properties, relationships between the structural and behavioural specification, and dynamic, or evolving aspects of a system's topology.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 195-204). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (M.S.)--Worcester Polytechnic Institute. / Keywords: theorem proving; modular verification; software verification; feature-oriented programming; feature interaction. Includes bibliographical references (p. 131-136).

Multi-core systems have become commonplace, however, theorem provers often do not take advantage of the additional computing resources in an interactive setting. This research explores automatically using these additional resources to lessen the delay between when users submit conjectures to the theorem prover and when they receive feedback from the prover that is useful in discovering how to successfully complete the proof of a particular theorem. This research contributes mechanisms that permit applicative programs to execute in parallel while simultaneously preparing these programs for verification by a semi-automatic reasoning system. It also contributes a parallel version of an automated theorem prover, with management of user interaction issues, such as output and how inherently single-threaded, user-level proof features can be configured for use with parallel computation. Finally, this dissertation investigates the types of proofs that are amenable to parallel execution. This investigation yields the result that almost all proof attempts that require a non-trivial amount of time can benefit from parallel execution. Proof attempts executed in parallel almost always provide the aforementioned feedback sooner than if they executed serially, and their execution time is often significantly reduced. / text