The system-level simplex architecture for improved real-time embedded system safety

Stanley Bak, Deepti K. Chivukula, Olugbemiga Adekunle, Mu Sun, Marco Caccamo, Lui Sha

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Embedded systems in safety-critical environments demand safety guarantees while providing many useful services that are too complex to formally verify or fully test. Existing application-level fault-tolerance methods, even if formally verified, leave the system vulnerable to errors in the realtime operating system (RTOS), middleware, and microprocessor. We introduce the System-Level Simplex Architecture, which uses hardware/software co-design to provide failoperational guarantees for both logical application-level faults, as well as faults in previously dependent layers including the RTOS and microprocessor. We also provide an end-to-end design process for the System-Level Simplex Architecture where the AADL architecture description is automatically constructed and checked and the VHDL hardware code is generated. To show the efficacy of System-Level Simplex design, we apply the approach to both a classic inverted pendulum and a cardiac pacemaker. We perform fault-injection tests on the inverted pendulum design which demonstrate robustness in spite of software controller and operating system faults. For the pacemaker, we contrast the provided safety guarantees with those of a previous-generation pacemaker.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings - 15th IEEE Real-Time and Embedded Technology and Application Symposium, RTAS 2009
Pages99-107
Number of pages9
DOIs
StatePublished - 2009
Event15th IEEE Real-Time and Embedded Technology and Application Symposium, RTAS 2009 - San Francisco, CA, United States
Duration: Apr 14 2009Apr 16 2009

Publication series

NameProceedings of the IEEE Real-Time and Embedded Technology and Applications Symposium, RTAS
ISSN (Print)1545-3421

Other

Other15th IEEE Real-Time and Embedded Technology and Application Symposium, RTAS 2009
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySan Francisco, CA
Period4/14/094/16/09

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Engineering

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