Synthesis of Trigger Properties

In automated synthesis, we transform a specification into a system that is guaranteed to satisfy the specification. In spite of the rich theory developed for temporal synthesis, little of this theory has been reduced to practice. This is in contrast with model-checking theory, which has led to industrial development and use of formal verification tools. We address this problem here by considering a certain class of PSL properties; this class covers most of the properties used in practice by system designers. We refer to this class as the class of trigger properties. We show that the synthesis problem for trigger properties is more amenable to implementation than that of general PSL properties. While the problem is still 2EXPTIME-complete, it can be solved using techniques that are significantly simpler than the techniques used in general temporal synthesis. Not only can we avoid the use of Safra’s determinization, but we can also avoid the use of progress ranks. Rather, the techniques used are based on classical subset constructions. This makes our approach amenable also to symbolic implementation, as well as an incremental implementation, in which the specification evolves over time.