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Search+LLM-based Testing for ARM Simulators

Even-Mendoza, Karine; Menéndez, Héctor D; Langdon, William; Dakhama, Aidan; Petke, Justyna; Bruce, Bobby R; (2025) Search+LLM-based Testing for ARM Simulators. In: International Conference on Software Engineering, Software Engineering in Practice Track, Proceedings. IEEE/ACM: Ottawa, Canada. (In press). Green open access

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Abstract

In order to aid quality assurance of large complex hardware architectures, system simulators have been developed. However, such system simulators do not always accurately mirror what would happen on a real device. A significant challenge in testing these simulators arises from the complexity of having to model both the simulation and the infinite number of software that could be run on such a device. Our previous work introduced SearchSYS, a testing framework for software simulators. SearchSYS leverages a large language model for initial seed C code generation, which is then compiled, and the resultant binary is fed to a fuzzer. We then use differential testing by running the outputs of fuzzing on real hardware and a system simulator to identify mismatches. We present and discuss our solution to the problem of testing software simulators, using SearchSYS to test the gem5 VLSI digital circuit simulator, employed by ARM to test their systems. In particular, we focus on the simulation of the ARM silicon chip Instruction Set Architecture (ISA)

Type: Proceedings paper
Title: Search+LLM-based Testing for ARM Simulators
Event: International Conference on Software Engineering, Software Engineering in Practice Track 2025
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author-accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Computer Science
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10203327
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