Theorem proving: not an esoteric diversion, but the unifying framework for industrial verification

Abstract

The effectiveness of hardware verification techniques has increased markedly in the past decade. As hardware verification techniques become increasingly powerful the idea of transitioning verification technology to industry can be taken seriously. Nevertheless, powerful decision procedures that can completely automate the verification of certain types of hardware, whether they are BDD based model-checkers or automatic microprocessor verification tools, cannot be adequate on their own for industrial hardware verification. However, a high-level, general-purpose theorem prover with specific capabilities can provide an overall framework in which these tools can be embedded and in which they can then be effectively used for industrial hardware verification.