We propose a new style of model checking of timed transition systems, where
instead of reasoning about the timing of states with specific properties,
we reason about the timings of events with specific properties. This shift
in paradigm appears to be useful for verification of edge-triggered control
paths, where we are more interested in the timings of changes in signal va
lues.
We propose a temporal logic, event-triggered timed computation tree logic (
ETCTL), which allows the specification of event properties such as posedge(
signal) and negedge( signal) along with real time computation tree logic (R
TCTL) properties. We show that all ETCTL properties are interval independen
t, that is, their truth can never change on states between successive event
s. By virtue of the interval independent property, reasoning about timings
of events (using ETCTL) is more efficient computationally than reasoning ab
out general timed properties, We present a labeling algorithm, and suggest
extensions to automata theoretic and symbolic approaches.