Termination analysis of floating-point programs using parameterizable rational approximations

Abstract : Analysis of floating-point programs is a topic that received an increasing attention the past few years. However, only very few works have been done regarding their termination analysis. We address that problem in this paper. We present a technique that takes advantage of the already existing works on termination analysis of rational programs. Our approach consists in translating the floating-point programs into rational ones by means of sound approximations. We approximate the floating-point expressions using piecewise linear functions. Our approximation differs from the already existing ones in the sense that it can be as precise as needed.