Exploring the Impact of Soft Errors on the Reliability of Real-Time Embedded Operating Systems

The continuous scaling of electronic components has led to the development of high-performance microprocessors that are suitable even for safety-critical applications where radiation-induced errors such as Single Event Effects (SEEs) can have a significant impact on the performance and reliability o...

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Main Authors: Sarah Azimi, Corrado De Sio, Andrea Portaluri, Daniele Rizzieri, Eleonora Vacca, Luca Sterpone, David Merodio Codinachs
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-12-01
Series:Electronics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/12/1/169
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author Sarah Azimi
Corrado De Sio
Andrea Portaluri
Daniele Rizzieri
Eleonora Vacca
Luca Sterpone
David Merodio Codinachs
author_facet Sarah Azimi
Corrado De Sio
Andrea Portaluri
Daniele Rizzieri
Eleonora Vacca
Luca Sterpone
David Merodio Codinachs
author_sort Sarah Azimi
collection DOAJ
description The continuous scaling of electronic components has led to the development of high-performance microprocessors that are suitable even for safety-critical applications where radiation-induced errors such as Single Event Effects (SEEs) can have a significant impact on the performance and reliability of the system. This work is dedicated to investigating the reliability of systems based on programmable hardware and Real-time operating Systems (RTOS) in the presence of architectural faults induced by soft errors in the configuration memory of the programmable hardware. We performed a proton radiation test campaigned at PSI radiation facility to identify the fault model affecting the configuration memory of Xilinx Zynq-7020 reconfigurable AP-Soc Device. The identified fault model in terms of SEU and MBU clusters has been used to evaluate the impact of proton-induced faults on applications running within FreeRTOS on a Microblaze soft processor. A Single Event Multiple Upset fault model resulting from a proton test is presented, focusing on characteristics such as shape, size, and frequency of observed cluster of errors. We conduct two fault injection campaigns and analyze the results to assess the effect of cluster size on system reliability. Moreover, we discuss software exceptions caused by faults that can affect the hardware structure of the soft processor.
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spelling doaj.art-d45091bd86824e9a95d75ff5fcec7ea52023-11-16T15:12:04ZengMDPI AGElectronics2079-92922022-12-0112116910.3390/electronics12010169Exploring the Impact of Soft Errors on the Reliability of Real-Time Embedded Operating SystemsSarah Azimi0Corrado De Sio1Andrea Portaluri2Daniele Rizzieri3Eleonora Vacca4Luca Sterpone5David Merodio Codinachs6Dipartimento di Automatica e Informatica (DAUIN), Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Turin, ItalyDipartimento di Automatica e Informatica (DAUIN), Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Turin, ItalyDipartimento di Automatica e Informatica (DAUIN), Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Turin, ItalyDipartimento di Automatica e Informatica (DAUIN), Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Turin, ItalyDipartimento di Automatica e Informatica (DAUIN), Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Turin, ItalyDipartimento di Automatica e Informatica (DAUIN), Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Turin, ItalyEuropean Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), European Space Agency (ESA), 2200 AZ Noordwijk, The NetherlandsThe continuous scaling of electronic components has led to the development of high-performance microprocessors that are suitable even for safety-critical applications where radiation-induced errors such as Single Event Effects (SEEs) can have a significant impact on the performance and reliability of the system. This work is dedicated to investigating the reliability of systems based on programmable hardware and Real-time operating Systems (RTOS) in the presence of architectural faults induced by soft errors in the configuration memory of the programmable hardware. We performed a proton radiation test campaigned at PSI radiation facility to identify the fault model affecting the configuration memory of Xilinx Zynq-7020 reconfigurable AP-Soc Device. The identified fault model in terms of SEU and MBU clusters has been used to evaluate the impact of proton-induced faults on applications running within FreeRTOS on a Microblaze soft processor. A Single Event Multiple Upset fault model resulting from a proton test is presented, focusing on characteristics such as shape, size, and frequency of observed cluster of errors. We conduct two fault injection campaigns and analyze the results to assess the effect of cluster size on system reliability. Moreover, we discuss software exceptions caused by faults that can affect the hardware structure of the soft processor.https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/12/1/169MBUproton radiation testReal-Time Operating SystemSEUsoft processor
spellingShingle Sarah Azimi
Corrado De Sio
Andrea Portaluri
Daniele Rizzieri
Eleonora Vacca
Luca Sterpone
David Merodio Codinachs
Exploring the Impact of Soft Errors on the Reliability of Real-Time Embedded Operating Systems
Electronics
MBU
proton radiation test
Real-Time Operating System
SEU
soft processor
title Exploring the Impact of Soft Errors on the Reliability of Real-Time Embedded Operating Systems
title_full Exploring the Impact of Soft Errors on the Reliability of Real-Time Embedded Operating Systems
title_fullStr Exploring the Impact of Soft Errors on the Reliability of Real-Time Embedded Operating Systems
title_full_unstemmed Exploring the Impact of Soft Errors on the Reliability of Real-Time Embedded Operating Systems
title_short Exploring the Impact of Soft Errors on the Reliability of Real-Time Embedded Operating Systems
title_sort exploring the impact of soft errors on the reliability of real time embedded operating systems
topic MBU
proton radiation test
Real-Time Operating System
SEU
soft processor
url https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/12/1/169
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