Experimenting with Predicate Abstraction

Predicate abstraction is a technique employed in software model checking to produce abstract models that can be conservatively checked for property violations in reasonable time. The precision degree of different abstractions of the same program may differ based on (i) the set of predicates used; or (ii) the algorithmic technique employed to generate the model. In this paper we explain how we have implemented and optimized one such technique, that produces the most precise existential abstraction of a program, and give the first steps towards establishing a common framework for both this direct technique and a second one, based on cartesian abstraction by weakest precondition calculations.