CLAIRE: an event-driven simulation tool for testing software

CLAIRE is a tool developed at CEA, the French nuclear research institute, for testing software involved in the information and control systems of nuclear plants. The tool is based purely on software simulation: the environment of the code is modelled and, at simulation time, exchanges information with the code under validation. Verification of safety properties can be performed with this tool. Several binary codes can be included in the same simulation to validate distributed real-time applications. The solutions adopted for the tool make it possible to use it to validate specifications, so that the verification of properties could be performed very early in the application life-cycle. The results of the simulation can be managed either online, at simulation time, or off-line after the end of the simulation