Formal verification of LTL formulas for SystemC designs

To handle today's complexity, modern circuits and systems have to be specified at a high level of abstraction. Recently, SystemC has been proposed as a language that allows a fast simulation on a high level of abstraction and an efficient realization on RTL. To guarantee the correct behavior of a design, a concise verification methodology has to be developed. We present the first formal verification approach for SystemC that allows to prove the correctness of properties specified in linear temporal logic (LTL). In contrast to simulation-based techniques, completeness can be ensured. Our proof engine is based on symbolic manipulation, and a case study of a scalable bus arbiter shows the efficiency of the approach.