Collaborative Research: CSR-EHS: Towards an Integrated Framework for Low Power Reliable Real-Time Embedded Systems

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With the proliferation of the battery-powered portable/embedded devices, effective energy management became extremely important and the research community has recently developed various energy management techniques. However, there is an urgent need to incorporate reliability requirements to these frameworks, in view of the ever-increasing transient fault rates linked to scaled technology sizes and reduced design margins. This is particularly important for safety-critical real-time embedded systems. Recent reports indicating that the problem is exacerbated by the widely-popular energy management technique, dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS), which has an alarmingly negative effect on system reliability because of increased transient fault rates associated with operation at low supply voltages.This project undertakes a comprehensive study of the interplay between energy management and transient fault recovery in real-time embedded systems. First, a generalized transient fault model for DVFS-enabled systems is being developed that considers the effects of radiation, temperature and electromagnetic interference. Second, focusing on operating-system-level algorithms and tools, the project is developing an integrated, reliability-aware power management framework for different types of embedded and real-time systems. The framework enables a trade-off analysis for energy savings and aggregate reliability to be carried out. Adaptive schemes that dynamically improve the system performance by monitoring system's execution at run-time are also investigated. The project is expected to have a substantial technological impact as energy-efficiency and reliability are known to be fundamental requirements for next generation real-time and embedded systems.