Methodologies and Architectures for Probabilistic Real-Time Systems

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Computing systems that are subject to strict operational deadlines from event (e.g. alarms, commands, etc.) to response are called real-time systems. These are employed in many applications where the response time of a control system can have a critical impact on the safety of people or infrastructure (e.g. airplanes, automobiles, or satellites). With critical applications become more and more complex, the performance of real-time systems has to increase to guarantee appropriate safety standards. The main obstacle to high-performance real-time systems is the unpredictable timing behaviour of modern computer architectures. Currently, software designed for real-time systems needs to be guaranteed to be executed within the required time frame. Depending on the complexity of the underlying hardware architecture, this level of certainty might be difficult or impossible to reach. Within this context, this project will introduce a probabilistic approach: by enabling true randomized behaviour in processors and memory architectures, one can define probabilistic metrics for the timing behaviour of a system. This would bring real-time software engineering in line with other engineering domains, that perform risk analysis using component failure probabilities. In this project we will define novel architectures and design methodologies for truly probabilistic real-time systems, focusing on aerospace applications. Successful implementation of such systems will have tremendous impact on the way critical systems are designed, and the potential benefits in terms of cost of integration, verification, and certification of real-time software are enormous.