Predictable Worst-Case Execution Time Analysis for Multiprocessor Systems-on-Chip

Worst-case execution time analysis is the fundament of real-time system design, and is therefore an area which has been subject to great scientific interest for a long time. However, traditional worst-case execution time analysis techniques assume that the underlying hardware is a monoprocessor system, and this class of hardware platforms is getting less suitable for modern embedded applications, which demand more and more in terms of computational power. For multiprocessor systems, traditional worst-case analysis tools do not produce correct results and can consequently not be used. To solve this problem, we have previously proposed a technique for achieving predictability on multiprocessor systems-on-chip using a shared TDMA bus. One of the main benefits with our approach is that existing, traditional worst-case execution time analysis techniques can, after some small modifications, be applied. In this paper, we describe the nature of these modifications and how to handle different types of multiprocessor architectures.