Reasoning and Verification: State of the Art and Current Trends

In this article, the authors give an overview of tool-based verification of hardware and software systems and discuss the relation between verification and logical reasoning. Here, "verification"' refers to reasoning-based methods to establish dependability. This isn't restricted to proofs of functional correctness; it also includes other scenarios such as test generation and bug finding. The authors describe the main verification scenarios and methods that are in use today and the extent to which they depend on logical reasoning. From this discussion, they distill current trends and new opportunities for the interaction between verification and reasoning.