SPIN is a powerful reachability analysis tool designed for the verification of distributed systems. The tool was first made available publicly in 1991, and has quickly become a standard in both academia and in industry. In academia the tool is used for both teaching verification techniques, and to support research in, e.g., search algorithms, reduction methods, and tool construction. In industry the tool is used routinely on large scale verification problems. There are well over 2,000 installations of SPIN today, with active users in 30 different countries. For more info, see http://netlib.att.com/netlib/spin/whatispin.html
The first SPIN workshop was held in Montreal, Canada. The SPIN96 workshop will take place in New Jersey as part of the DIMACS Special Year on Logic and Algorithms. The new workshop will be part of a series of workshops on formal methods and verification. More information can be found at: http://dimacs.rutgers.edu/archive/
SPIN96 takes place following the LICS (logic in computer science), CADE (conf. on automated deduction) and CAV (computer aided verification) conferences, which will all be held at the same location in New Jersey this year. (See http://www.research.att.com/lics/floc/)
Demo sessions of extensions, restrictions, and variations of SPIN will be organized (or of any comparable tool that is suggested).
Keynote speaker: Moshe Y. Vardi, Rice University
Papers: Papers can be up to 20 pages in length and can be either a report on work in progress or a regular research paper on work that is somehow related to the SPIN system .Demos: Tool demonstrations, of extensions, restrictions variations, or alternatives, to SPIN, are invited. Please tell us as early as possible if you plan to demonstrate software - so that we can make sure we can set it up properly and make it work.
Dates: The deadline for all contributions is: Saturday, June 15, 1996. Papers can be submitted electronically, in PostScript form to any one of the organizers. We will make available a Proceedings of the workshop in both printed and also, for the authors that permit us to do so, in electronic form.