Enhanced Compiler Technology for Software-based Hardware Fault Detection

Abstract

Software-Implemented Hardware Fault Tolerance (SIHFT) is a modern approach for tackling random hardware faults of dependable systems employing solely software solutions. This work extends an automatic compiler-based SIHFT hardening tool called ASPIS, enhancing it with novel protection mechanisms and overhead-reduction techniques, also providing an extensive analysis of its compliance with the non-trivial workload of the open-source Real-Time Operating System FreeRTOS. A thorough experimental fault-injection campaign on an STM32 board shows how the system achieves remarkably high tolerance to single-event upsets and a comparison between the SIHFT mechanisms implemented summarises the tradeoff between the overhead introduced and the detection capabilities of the various solutions.