INTEGRATED RELIABILITY AND TIMING DESIGN ANALYSIS TOOL

DURING DEVELOPMENT OF COMPLEX, EMBEDDED SYSTEMS QUANTITATIVE TRADEOFFS OF RELIABILITY AND TIMING PERFORMANCE ARE OFTEN NOT CONSIDERED. DEGRADED PERFORMANCE IN ONE OR BOTH OF THESE AREAS CAN RESULT. AN INTEGRATED RELIABILITY AND TIMING ANALYSIS TOOL WILL PROVIDE THE CAPABILITY FOR SIMULTANEOUSLY ASSESSING SYSTEM DESIGNS FOR BOTH CHARACTERISTICS. BY BASING THE TOOL ON AN ICONIC DESIGN REPRESENTATION LANGUAGE IT WILL BE IMMEDIATELY ACCESSIBLE TO SYSTEM DESIGNERS. PREVIOUS RESEARCH WHICH RESULTED IN AN ICONIC LANGUAGE TO SUPPORT ONLY TIMING PERFORMANCE CAN SERVE AS A BASIS FOR THE CURRENT RESEARCH.BEFORE THE INTEGRATED ANALYSIS TOOL CAN BE DEVELOPED, TWO TECHNICAL OBJECTIVES MUST BE RESEARCHED: (1) DEFINE THE SYSTEM DESIGN LANGUAGE CONSTRUCTS TO SUPPORT RELIABILITY ANALYSES; AND (2) SHOW THAT THE RELIABILITY RELATED LANGUAGE CONSTRUCTS ARE AMENABLE TO ICONIC REPRESENTATION. THE PROPOSED RESEARCH WILL ADDRESS THESE TECHNICAL OBJECTIVES BY DEVELOPING THE ICONIC LANGUAGE TO SUPPORT REPRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF SYSTEM RELIABILITY.