Direct qualification of digital components
Existing methods for qualifying digital system software for use in safety critical systems are expensive and are based on inferences that are of doubtful validity. This report on work-in-progress describes a new approach to qualifying a class of small safety systems that can meet a number of design restrictions, where the restrictions are carefully crafted to permit safety qualification to be determined by means of static analysis of the software combined with a limited amount of testing. This approach differs from attempts to qualify unrestricted programs in the general case. Work that has been accomplished towards this goal is discussed in summary terms. The technique relies on transforming a program into a form of directed graph known as a flowgraph. Existing testing theory is used, sometimes with minor modifications, to derive a set of design restrictions that permit reasoning about safety properties of the program, based on analysis and limited testing. Future work required to complete the research is outlined.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 310932
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-JC-130821; CONF-981011-; R&D Project: 98-ERD-032; ON: DE98057886; BR: YN0100000
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: American Nuclear Society international topical meeting on safety of operating reactors, San Francisco, CA (United States), 11-14 Oct 1998; Other Information: PBD: 8 Jul 1998
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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