A new partitioning scheme for improvement of image computation

Image computation is the core operation for optimization and formal verification of sequential systems like controllers or protocols. State exploration techniques based on OBDDs use a partitioned representation of the transition relation to keep the OBDD-sizes manageable. This paper presents a new approach that significantly increases the quality of the partitioning of the transition relation of finite state machines. The heuristic has been successfully applied to reachability analysis and symbolic model checking of real life designs, resulting in a significant reduction in CPU time as well as in memory consumption.