Parametric timing analysis

Embedded systems often have real-time constraints. Traditional timing analysis statically determines the maximum execution time of a task or a program in a real-time system. These systems typi-cally depend on the worst-case execution time of tasks in order to make static scheduling decisions so that tasks can meet their dead-lines. Static determination of worst-case execution times imposes numerous restrictions on real-time programs, which include that the maximum number of iterations of each loop must be known statically. These restrictions can significantly limit the class of programs that would be suitable for a real-time embedded system. This paper describes work-in-progress that uses static timing anal-ysis to aid in making dynamic scheduling decisions. For instance, different algorithms with varying levels of accuracy may be selected based on the algorithm’s predicted worst-case executio