Using NEXUS compliant debuggers for real time fault injection on microprocessors

Abstract

As electronic devices get smaller and more complex,dependability assurance is becoming fundamental for manymission critical computer based systems. This paper presents acase study on the possibility of using the on-chip debuginfrastructures present in most current microprocessors to executereal time fault injection campaigns. The proposed methodology isbased on a debugger customized for fault injection and designedfor maximum flexibility, and consists of injecting bit-flip typefaults on memory elements without modifying or halting thetarget application. The debugger design is easily portable andapplicable to different architectures, providing a flexible andefficient mechanism for verifying and validating fault tolerantcomponents.