Exploiting the IEEE 1149.1 Standard for Software Reliability Evaluation in Space Applications

The IEEE 1149.1 standard (boundary-scan) was originally developed as a technology to provide in-circuit testing of digital devices. Its effectiveness lead to unanticipated successes such as its extension to support on-line monitoring and in-circuit emulation. Meanwhile, its applicability for fault-injection had already been demonstrated by academic prototypes. In this paper we describe the first commercial tool, the BSCAN4FI plug in for Xception®, that provides support for software reliability evaluation for aeronautics and space applications using the boundary-scan technology as a means for controlled fault-injection. This tool allows transparent integration testing without any modification to the original system to be deployed and was developed specifically for the SPARC V.7 TSC695f space processor. Besides extended fault models and test features only made possible through this technology, in-system non-intrusive monitoring capabilities are also made possible.