Method for evaluating the quality of a computer program

A method for rating the quality of a computer program whose execution involves an integrated circuit's input data and output data being influenced, comprising

• (a) provision of a mutated integrated circuit which is obtained by incorporating a plurality of functional mutations into the (unmutated) integrated circuit, and implementation of the mutated integrated circuit using one or more field programmable gate arrays (FPGA);
• (b) influencing of the mutated integrated circuit's input data and output data, with the output data from the mutated integrated circuit being recorded;
• (c) comparison of the output data obtained in this manner from the mutated integrated circuit with the output data which the computer program expects when the unmutated integrated circuit is influenced;
• and
• (d) rating of the quality of the computer program on the basis of the comparison results.
• where a respective one of the incorporated mutations is active but the others are inactive, and steps (b) to (d) are repeated until each of the incorporated functional mutations has been an activated mutation;
• and where
• the quality of the computer program is determined from the number of functional mutations which are identified by the comparison performed in step (c) in relation to the total number of incorporated mutations.