The 'Logic Assurance (LA)' system-a tool for testing and controlling real-time systems

The LA system combines the testing, debugging, monitoring and control of real-time systems. It is capable of improving a system's reliability and development productivity. This is achieved by enabling the developer to describe parts of the specification with logic and temporal logic assertions. The assertions are automatically compared to the actual behavior of the system under development (SUD), and its environment information about the SUD's behavior is represented by informative events and states. This information is transferred to LA from different resources by using special directives inserted inside the code (an approach we call 'informative box'). When an assertion is violated, an informative message is given so that bugs can be detected and focused on. In addition to the message, a user function can be called. This can be used for real-time control and monitoring, either while testing the system or after it has already been launched. The informative box method enables one to perform smart, pin-pointed tests and temporal tests, neither of which can be performed by using standard black-box techniques. This is why LA can assist in the testing and integration of real-time embedded systems, reactive systems, and particularly in the testing of multiprocessor systems running cooperative processes. Considerable time and effort can be saved by using LA throughout the development process. Moreover, it has the capability to detect erroneous situations that otherwise would be more difficult to notice, as was proven when it was used to handle several communication protocol simulations.