Formal methods are a robust approach for problem solving. It is based on logic and algebraic methods where problems can be formulated in a way that can help to find an appropriate solution. This book shows the basic concepts of formal methods and highlights modern modifications and enhancements to provide a more robust and efficient problem solving tool. Applications are presented from different disciplines such as engineering where the operation of chemical plants is synthesized using formal methods. Computational biology becomes easier and systematic using formal methods. Also, hardware compilation and systems can be managed using formal methods. This book will be helpful for both beginners and experts to get insights and experience on modern formal methods by viewing real applications from different domains.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 25th International Workshop on Formal Methods for Industrial Critical Systems, FMICS 2020, which was held during September 2-3, 2020. The conference was planned to take place in Vienna, Austria. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic it changed to a virtual event. The 11 full papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 26 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections as follows: Quantitative Analysis and Cyber-Physical Systems, Formal Verification of Industrial Systems, Temporal Logic and Model Checking. The book also contains a lengthy report on a Formal Methods Survey conducted on occasion of the 25th edition of the conference.

Formal Verification: An Essential Toolkit for Modern VLSI Design, Second Edition presents practical approaches for design and validation, with hands-on advice to help working engineers integrate these techniques into their work. Formal Verification (FV) enables a designer to directly analyze and mathematically explore the quality or other aspects of a Register Transfer Level (RTL) design without using simulations. This can reduce time spent validating designs and more quickly reach a final design for manufacturing. Building on a basic knowledge of SystemVerilog, this book demystifies FV and presents the practical applications that are bringing it into mainstream design and validation processes. Every chapter in the second edition has been updated to reflect evolving FV practices and advanced techniques. In addition, a new chapter, Formal Signoff on Real Projects, provides guidelines for implementing signoff quality FV, completely replacing some simulation tasks with significantly more productive FV methods. After reading this book, readers will be prepared to introduce FV in their organization to effectively deploy FV techniques that increase design and validation productivity. Covers formal verification algorithms that help users gain full coverage without exhaustive simulation Helps readers understand formal verification tools and how they differ from simulation tools Shows how to create instant testbenches to gain insights into how models work and to find initial bugs Presents insights from Intel insiders who share their hard-won knowledge and solutions to complex design problems

This Festschrift volume, dedicated to Jifeng He on the occasion of his 80th birthday, includes refereed papers by leading researchers, many of them current and former colleagues, presented at a dedicated celebration in the Shanghai Science Hall in September 2023. Jifeng was an important researcher on the European ESPRIT ProCoS project and the Working Group on Provably Correct Systems, subsequently he collaborated with Tony Hoare on Unifying Theories of Programming. Jifeng returned to China in 1998, first to the United Nations University in Macau and then to the East China Normal University in Shanghai. He has since founded an Artificial Intelligence research institute that focuses on the application of technology in large-scale industrial software systems. His scientific contributions have been recognized through his election to membership of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The first paper in the volume provides an overview of Jifeng’s research contributions, especially in the area of formal methods, and the following two papers detail developments in UTP and rCOS (refinement calculus of object systems). In the next two sections of the book, the editors included papers by colleagues and coauthors of Jifeng while he was at the University of Oxford and engaged with the European ProCoS project. The section that follows includes papers authored by colleagues from his later research in China and Europe. The final section includes a paper related to Jifeng’s recent roadmap for UTP.

Based on material used by the authors in their teaching, this volume provides a detailed comparison and study of the various methods for reasoning about software. The material offers a comprehensive understanding of which program structures are easier to manipulate by formal techniques, thus allowing professionals to write programs that are easier to reason about informally. The basic technology presented should be of use in all programming environments.

The three-volume set LNCS 12476 - 12478 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 9th International Symposium on Leveraging Applications of Formal Methods, ISoLA 2020, which was planned to take place during October 20–30, 2020, on Rhodes, Greece. The event itself was postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the proceedings. Each volume focusses on an individual topic with topical section headings within the volume: Part I, Verification Principles: Modularity and (De-)Composition in Verification; X-by-Construction: Correctness meets Probability; 30 Years of Statistical Model Checking; Verification and Validation of Concurrent and Distributed Systems. Part II, Engineering Principles: Automating Software Re-Engineering; Rigorous Engineering of Collective Adaptive Systems. Part III, Applications: Reliable Smart Contracts: State-of-the-art, Applications, Challenges and Future Directions; Automated Verification of Embedded Control Software; Formal methods for DIStributed COmputing in future RAILway systems.

This is an excellent introduction to formal methods which will bring anyone who needs to know about this important topic up to speed. It is comprehensive, giving the reader all the information needed to explore the field of formal methods in more detail. It offers: a guide to the mathematics required; comprehensive but easy-to-understand introductions to various methods; a run-down of how formal methods can help to develop high-quality systems that come in on time, within budget, and according to requirements.