Model Based Testing of VHDL Programs

VHDL programs are often validated by means of test benches constructed from formal system specification. To include real-time properties of VHDL programs, the proposed approach first transforms them to concurrently running network of timed automata and then performs model checking on properties taken from the specification. Counterexamples generated by the model checker are used to form a test bench. The approach is validated by a case study composed of a nontrivial application running on a microprocessor. As presented, the approach enables testing both hardware and software at once.