EXPERT ASSISTANT FOR INTEGRATED TIMING AND RELIABILITY DESIGN ANALYSIS

TIMING AND RELIABILITY PERFORMANCE ARE BECOMING INCREASINGLYCRITICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF EMBEDDED COMPUTER SYSTEM SOFTWARE. COMPLEX TRADEOFFS INVOLVING INTERACTIONS BETWEEN TIMING AND RELIABILITY PROPERTIES NEED TO BE MADE DURING DESIGN TO ENSURE THAT SYSTEMS WILL SATISFY STRINGENT PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS. THIS SBIR PROJECT WILL INVESTIGATE AN EXPERT SYSTEM BASED AUTOMATED TOOL TO ANALYZECOMPLEX SOFTWARE SYSTEMS FOR TIMING AND RELIABILITY PERFORMANCE. HEURISTICS IN THE TOOL'S KNOWLEDGE BASE WILL ADDRESS THE COMPLEXITY OF THE DESIGN ANALYSIS. THE EXPERT SYSTEM WILL BE COUPLED WITH A PERFORMANCE MODELING COMPONENT TO ASSESS COMPLIANCE WITH REQUIREMENTS, IDENTIFY PERFORMANCE PROBLEMS, AND RECOMMEND DESIGN CHANGES.THE KNOWLEDGE BASE OF THE EXPERT SYSTEM WILL BE OPEN, PROVIDING EASY ENHANCEMENT BY EXPERTS IN INTEGRATED TIMING AND RELIABILITY PERFORMANCE. THE PHASE I PROJECT WILL DEFINE AND STRUCTURE THE BODY OF SOFTWARE TIMING AND RELIABILITY PERFORMANCE KNOWLEDGE AND WILL DEFINE THE EXPERTSYSTEM UTILITIES REQUIRED TO SUPPORT THE OPEN KNOWLEDGE BASECONCEPT. PREVIOUS RESEARCH WITH INTEGRATED TIMING AND RELIABILITY MODELING AND WITH EXPERT SYSTEM APPLICATIONS FORTIMING ANALYSIS WILL PROVIDE A BASE FOR THE OPEN, INTEGRATED EXPERT ASSISTANT.