# The x86isa Books: Features, Usage, and Future Plans

## TL;DR

The paper discusses the features, usage, and future development plans of the x86isa library, a formal model for reasoning about x86 machine-code programs within the ACL2 framework, aiming to facilitate program verification.

## Contribution

It provides an overview of the x86isa library's features, typical usage, and highlights missing capabilities to encourage community involvement and improve analysis of x86 programs.

## Key findings

- Highlights key features of the x86isa library
- Describes typical workflows for using the library
- Identifies missing capabilities to guide future development

## Abstract

The x86isa library, incorporated in the ACL2 community books project, provides a formal model of the x86 instruction-set architecture and supports reasoning about x86 machine-code programs. However, analyzing x86 programs can be daunting -- even for those familiar with program verification, in part due to the complexity of the x86 ISA. Furthermore, the x86isa library is a large framework, and using and/or contributing to it may not seem straightforward. We present some typical ways of working with the x86isa library, and describe some of its salient features that can make the analysis of x86 machine-code programs less arduous. We also discuss some capabilities that are currently missing from these books -- we hope that this will encourage the community to get involved in this project.