Safe Dynamic Reshaping of Reconfigurable MPSoC Embedded Systems for Self-Healing and Self-Adaption Purposes

Abstract

Multiprocessor system-on-chip (MPSoC) architectures are a huge challenge in embedded system design. This situation arises from the fact that available MPSoCs and related designs flows are not tailored to the specific needs of embedded systems. This work demonstrates how to provide self-healing properties in embedded MPSoC design. This is achieved by combining the features of a generic approach to create virtualizable MPSoCs out of off-the-shelf embedded processors with a methodology to derive system configurations, such as task-processor bindings, which are optimal in terms of safety and execution time. The virtualization properties enable a reshaping of the MPSoC at runtime. Thus, system configurations may be exchanged rapidly in a dynamic fashion. As a main result of this work, embedded multiprocessor systems are introduced, which dynamically adapt to changing operating conditions, possible module defects, and internal state changes. We demonstrate the figures of merit of such reconfigurable MPSoC embedded systems by means of a complex automotive application scenario mapped to an FPGA featuring a virtualizable array of eight soft-core processors.