Chinese Journal of Computers   Full Text
Title	A Dependability Evaluation System Based on Microprocessor Function Model
Authors	ZHANG Shi-Jian1),2) XU Tong1),2) ZHANG Long-Bing1) HU Wei-Wu1)
Address	1)(Key Laboratory of Computer System and Architecture, Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080) 2)(Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039)
Year	2008
Issue	No.3(391—399)
Abstract &   Background	Abstract With the widespread adoption of embedded microprocessor-based systems in safety critical applications, such as aircrafts, spaceships and nuclear power plants, how to rapidly and conveniently evaluate these fault-tolerant mechanisms with low cost is an important problem. The traditional method requires a detailed hardware protocol to do evaluation, which lengthens evaluation period and increases the cost. A new dependability evaluation technique based on microprocessor function model is proposed, which can evaluate fault-tolerant mechanisms more rapidly, more conveniently and more economically than the conventional systems. As a case for study, the new system evaluates three fault-tolerant techniques: the software redundancy technique, the assertion validation technique and the instruction re-fetching and re-execution technique. The results show that the evaluation is reasonable. keywords fault injection; dependability evaluation; fault-tolerant technique; microprocessor; transient fault background With the widespread adoption of embedded microprocessor-based systems for safety critical applications, fault-tolerant mechanisms have been built into application programs and microprocessors. How to evaluate their cost and effectiveness is a difficult and challenging task. In this paper, a new fault injection technique based on microprocessor function model is proposed, which has the capability to assess system dependability in an early phase. The authors’ work is an important component of the research on low power and high reliability for the Godson1 microprocessor. The project is supported by the National Basic Research Program(973 Program) of China under grant No.2005CB321600 and the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant Nos.60325205, 60673146 and 60703017 and the Beijing Natural Science Foundation under grant No.4072024.