An approach for detecting power peaks during testing and breaking systematic pathological behavior

Abstract

The verification and validation process of embedded critical systems requires providing evidence of their functional correctness and also that their non-functional behavior stays within limits. In this work, we focus on power peaks, which may cause voltage droops and thus, challenge performance to preserve correct operation upon droops. In this line, the use of complex software and hardware in critical embedded systems jeopardizes the confidence that can be placed on the tests carried out during the campaigns performed at analysis. This is so because it is unknown whether tests have triggered the highest power peaks that can occur during operation and whether any such peak can occur systematically. In this paper we propose the use of randomization, already used for timing analysis of real-time systems, as an enabler to guarantee that (1) tests expose those peaks that can arise during operation and (2) peaks cannot occur systematically inadvertently.