Analysis-Aware Design of Embedded Systems Software

Florian, 2014

Category: Software Engineering

Overall Rating

1.7/5 (12/35 pts)

This paper presents an interesting academic prototype centered on an "analysis-aware" language (AAL) and explores non-standard verifier architectures, particularly embedding model checking within a scheduler process using a reflection API.
While this embedded verifier concept holds a spark of architectural novelty, its value is deeply tied to the custom AAL language ecosystem.
The approach relies on technical implementations... that are likely less efficient and mature than modern, dedicated analysis tools operating on widely adopted languages...
...which now include options like Rust that address some of AAL's core design motivations.

This thesis introduces the concept of implementing verification algorithms (model checking, testing) as special "scheduler processes" directly within the Analysis-aware Language (AAL) using a reflection API to inspect and control the execution state of the system being analyzed.
This architectural choice, where the verifier is a co-resident process rather than an external tool, creates an unconventional opportunity for developing AI-driven control plane agents for verifying or managing complex, concurrent systems in real-time or simulation.
This differs significantly from typical AI-for-verification approaches that might use machine learning externally... Here, the AI agent is embedded within the system's own execution environment (the scheduler)...

The core assumption driving the creation of a new language (AAL) to enforce analysis-friendly structure seems fundamentally outdated or at least overly optimistic for real-world adoption today.
the intervening years have seen the rise and increasing maturity of languages like Rust, which provide compile-time guarantees for memory safety and fearless concurrency within a system-level programming context, without requiring developers to learn an entirely novel, niche language like AAL.
The reliance on CLIPS for static analysis... introduces potential issues with performance and termination guarantees...
Implementing model checking algorithms within the AAL scheduler language itself introduces performance overhead.

Ignore