Specification-Based Test Program Generation for ARM VMSAv8-64 Memory Management Units

In this paper, a tool for automatically generating test programs for ARM VMSAv8-64 memory management units is described. The solution is based on the MicroTESK framework being developed at ISP RAS. The tool consists of two parts: an architecture-independent test program generation core and VMSAv8-64 specifications. Such separation is not a new principle in the area -- it is applied in a number of industrial test program generators, including IBM's Genesys-Pro. The main distinction is in how specifications are represented, what sort of information is extracted from them, and how that information is exploited. In the suggested approach, specifications comprise descriptions of the memory access instructions, loads and stores, and definition of the memory management mechanisms such as translation lookaside buffers, page tables, and cache units. The tool analyzes the specifications and extracts the execution paths and inter-path dependencies. The extracted information is used to systematically enumerate test programs for a given user-defined template. Test data for a particular program are generated by using symbolic execution and constraint solving techniques.