An FPGA-based framework for run-time injection and analysis of soft errors in microprocessors

Abstract

Abstract-State-of-the-art cyber-physical systems are increasingly deployed in harsh environments with non-negligible soft error rates, such as aviation or search-and-rescue missions. State-of-the-art nanoscale manufacturing technologies are more vulnerable to soft errors. In this paper, we present an FPGAbased framework for injecting soft errors into user-specified memory elements of an entire microprocessor (MIPS32) running application software. While the framework is applicable to arbitrary software, we demonstrate its usage by characterizing soft errors effects on several software filters used in aviation for probabilistic sensor data fusion.

Identification of critical variables using an FPGA-based fault injection framework

“…Our fault injection framework is an extension of [15]. The novel contribution comprises the identification of the critical software variables.…”