Patent ID: 6298317
Filing Date: 2001-10-02
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A functional testing system for functionally simulating and verifying a computer program, the system comprising:a mutation generator for generating a series of mutated computer programs, wherein each mutated computer program has a syntactic mutation;a first functional simulator for serially processing each mutated computer program, wherein the first functional simulator identifies whether the syntactic mutation in each mutated computer program is a non-subtle syntactic mutation and terminates the functional simulation of each mutated computer program having an identified non-subtle syntactic mutation, and wherein each syntactic mutation not identified as a non-subtle mutation is identified as a subtle mutation; anda second functional simulator for serially processing each mutated computer program having a subtle syntactic mutation, wherein the second functional simulator terminates the functional simulation of each mutated computer program if it detects the subtle syntactic mutation within a predetermined simulation period, and wherein the second functional simulator provides an indication that the subtle syntactic mutation was not detected if it does not detect the subtle syntactic mutation within the predetermined simulation period.