Bit Rate of Programs

Abstract

A program can be considered as a device that generates discrete time signals, where a signal is an execution. Shannon information rate, or bit rate, of the signals may not be uniformly distributed. When the program is specified by a finite state transition system, algorithms are provided in identifying information-rich components. For a black-box program that has a partial specification or does not even have a specification, a bit rate signal and its spectrum are studied, which make use of data compression and the Fourier transform. The signal provides a bit-rate coverage for testing the black-box while its spectrum indicates a visual representation for execution's information characteristics.