Modular performance analysis and interface-based design for embedded real-time systems
Ernesto Wandeler · ETH Zürich Research Collection · 2006
System level performance analysis methods play an important role in the design process of complex embedded systems. They allow to analyze essential performance characteristics of a system design in an early design phase and consequently support the choice of important design decisions before much time and resources are invested in detailed implementations. While formal analysis based methods for system level performance analysis lead to hard bounded analysis results and can thus be employed in the design of hard real-time systems, these methods are often restricted in their modeling and analysis capabilities, and the obtained results are often overly pessimistic due to a lack of details such analytical methods can incorporate in their system analysis. In this thesis we identify challenges for system level performance analysis of embedded systems, and based on these challenges we further develop and extend a framework for formal modular performance analysis and design of complex distributed embedded real-time systems. The main contributions of this work are listed in the following. • Novel models and methods are presented for performance analysis of complex embedded systems that combine components with various different processing semantics within one system design. • Novel models and methods are introduced to address the challenges of complex inputs, variable execution demands, and workload correlations in performance analysis of complex embedded systems. • The theory of Real-Time Interfaces that connects the principles of Real-Time Calculus and interface-based design is introduced, together with a component system that enables interface-based embedded real-time system design. • Novel models and methods are introduced that facilitate the modeling, analysis, and design of hierarchical scheduling policies in complex embedded systems. • A new MATLAB Toolbox is introduced that supports efficient system level performance analysis and interface-based design of distributed embedded real-time systems.