TESTING EMBEDDED AND PARALLEL SYSTEMS

SOFTWARE SYSTEMS FOR MANY MILITARY AND SPACECRAFT EMBEDDED AND PARALLEL (DISTRIBUTED) SYSTEMS APPLICATIONS ARE EXTENSIVE AND HIGHLY COMPLEX, MAKING DESIGN, SAFETY ANALYSIS, VERIFICATION AND TESTING DIFFICULT. SIMILAR PROBLEMS HAVE PLAGUED VLSI HARDWARE DEVELOPERS, AND LIKE IN SPACE AND MILITARY CONTEXTS, THE COST FOR REWORK DUE TO SYSTEMS DESIGN ERRORS HAS DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT OF VALIDATION AND VERIFICATION METHODOLOGIES AND ASSOCIATED TOOLS. WE PROPOSE TO ADAPT SOME OF THESE TESTING APPROACHES TYPICALLY USED IN VLSI SYSTEM VALIDATION TO THE TESTING OF LARGE AI AND CONVENTIONAL SOFTWARE SYSTEMS, AND BUILD AN EFFICIENT DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT FOR LISP (AND, IN PHASE II, ADA AND/OR CMS-3) TO SUPPORT THEM. WE BELIEVE THE TOOLS PROPOSED WILL BE USEFUL DURING REVERSE SOFTWARE ENGINEERING, AS WELL, BECAUSE KEY RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN MODULES, VARIABLES, AND CONDITIONAL PATHS WILL BE ELLUCIDATED.