Auxiliary state machines + context-triggered properties in verification

Abstract

Formal specifications of interface protocols between a design-under-test and its environment mostly consist of two types of correctness requirements, namely (a) a set of invariants that applies throughout the protocol execution and (b) a set of context-triggered properties that applies only when the protocol state belongs to a specific set of contexts. To model such requirements, an increasingly popular design choice in the assertion IP design community has been the use of abstract context state machines and state-oriented properties. In this paper, we formalize this modeling style and present algorithms for verifying such specifications. Specifically, we present a purely formal approach and a semi-formal approach for verifying such specifications. We demonstrate the use of this design style in modeling some of the industry standard protocol descriptions and present encouraging results.