Improving scalability of model-checking for minimizing buffer requirements of synchronous dataflow graphs

Synchronous dataflow (SDF) is a well-known model of computation for dataflow-oriented applications such as embedded systems for signal processing and multimedia. It is important to minimize the buffer size requirements of applications generated from SDF graphs, since memory space is often a scarce resource in these systems due to cost or power consumption constraints. Some authors have proposed to use model-checking for finding the minimum buffer size requirements, but the scalability of model-checking is limited by state space explosion. In this paper, we present several techniques for reducing state space size and improving scalability of model-checking by exploiting problem-specific properties of SDF graphs.