Transactions Sequence Tracking by means of Dynamic Binary Instrumentation of TLM Models

Several traditional VHDL fault injection mechanisms like mutants or saboteurs have been adapted to SystemC model descriptions. The main drawback of these approaches is the necessity of source code modification to carry out the fault injection campaigns. In this paper, we propose the use of Dynamic Binary Instrumentation (DBI) to insert binary transaction saboteurs in SystemC TLM models. DBI is a technique to intercept software routine calls allowing argument and return value corruption and data structures modification at runtime. This technique needs neither source code modifications nor recompilation of target modules in order to insert/remove saboteurs in the signal communication path. To validate this approach a protocol tracker in a TLM2.0 model is inserted in order to generate runtime UML Sequence Diagrams describing the interchanged transactions in a graphical an attractive way allowing an easy visual verification of expected behavior.