Methodologies and Architectures for Probabilistic Real-Time Systems

从事件（如警报、命令等）到响应都有严格的操作期限的计算系统被称为实时系统。在许多应用中，控制系统的响应时间可能对人员或基础设施（例如飞机、汽车或卫星）的安全产生关键影响。随着关键应用变得越来越复杂，实时系统的性能必须提高，以保证适当的安全标准。高性能实时系统的主要障碍是现代计算机体系结构不可预测的时序行为。****目前，为实时系统设计的软件需要保证在规定的时间框架内执行。根据底层硬件体系结构的复杂性，这种级别的确定性可能很难或不可能达到。在此背景下，本项目将引入一种概率方法：通过在处理器和内存架构中启用真正的随机行为，可以定义系统定时行为的概率度量。这将使实时软件工程与使用组件故障概率执行风险分析的其他工程领域保持一致。在这个项目中，我们将为真正的概率实时系统定义新的架构和设计方法，重点是航空航天应用。这样的系统的成功实现将对关键系统的设计方式产生巨大的影响，并且在集成、验证和实时软件认证的成本方面的潜在好处是巨大的。

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.