Integration Testing of Heterotic Systems

TL;DR

This paper presents a formal modeling and automatic test-set generation approach for heterotic systems that combine radically different technologies, such as silicon chips and wetware, using Eilenberg's X-machine model.

Contribution

It introduces a unified formal specification framework for heterotic systems and proposes a method for automatic integration testing across diverse technological components.

Findings

Successful modeling of multi-technology systems using X-machines

Development of a test-set generation strategy for heterotic systems

Illustration with a combined X-machine and P system example

Abstract

Computational theory and practice generally focus on single-paradigm systems, but relatively little is known about how best to combine components based on radically different approaches (e.g., silicon chips and wetware) into a single coherent system. In particular, while testing strategies for single-technology components are generally well developed, it is unclear at present how to perform integration testing on heterotic systems: can we develop a test-set generation strategy for checking whether specified behaviours emerge (and unwanted behaviours do not) when components based on radically different technologies are combined within a single system? In this paper, we describe an approach to modelling multi-technology heterotic systems using a general-purpose formal specification strategy based on Eilenberg's X-machine model of computation. We show how this approach can be used to represent disparate technologies within a single framework, and propose a strategy for using these formal models for automatic heterotic test-set generation. We illustrate our approach by showing how to derive a test set for a heterotic system combining an X-machine-based device with a cell-based P system (membrane system).