Introduction to the Special Section on iFM 2020

Abstract

In recent years, we have witnessed a proliferation of approaches that integrate several modeling, verification, simulation, and testing techniques. Such approaches facilitate more versatile and efficient analysis of modern computation-intensive systems. They provide powerful support for the analysis of different functional and non-functional properties of the systems, various hardware and software components, and their interaction, as well as the design and validation of diverse aspects of system behavior. iFM 2020 solicited high-quality papers reporting novel research results as well as tool papers and experience reports. The Program Committee (PC) received 63 submissions and selected 24 for publication, of which 2 were short papers. The conference was held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We received fantastic support from the general chair, Carlo Furia, and his team, allowing the virtual conference to proceed smoothly and efficiently. For this we are very thankful. Here is a collection of the extended versions of the best papers from the iFM 2020 conference that have been selected by the PC. The articles cover a broad spectrum of topics, describing formal verification of a file system for flash memory down to system-level code, error analysis of the arithmetic operations as a means of controlling error propagation, and loop synthesis from loop invariants via reductions to polynomial constraint problems. The three accepted articles are listed below: