Robust Partitioning for Reliable Real-Time Systems

Mechatronic systems request for high reliability, especially in the context of time where mostly hard real-time capabilities are mandatory. Maybe even stronger requirements regard the robustness against software failures and interdependences from erroneous tasks to others. This paper proposes the concept of robust partitioning for reliable real-time embedded systems. The concept consists of two parts, memory space protection and time protection. Memory protection is realized by already existing hardware and software mechanisms. For realizing temporal protection, a two-step timer interrupt system realizing an imprecise computation concept is proposed: If the execution of a module exceeds a certain time limit before the deadline, the first timer interrupt is triggered and a backup routine is started to produce an imprecise result in the remaining time until the second timer expires. This time protection concept shows significant advantages as compared to classical approaches for single, parallel and distributed systems. The paper gives an extended introduction into the concept and discussed first attempts for its realization