Enhanced quality using intensive test and analysis on simulators

Reda Nouacer (1) , Manel Djemal (2) , Smail Niar (2) , Gilles Mouchard (1) , N. Rapin (1) , J.-P. Gallois (1) , P. Fiani (3) , F. Chastrette (4) , T. Adriano (4) , B. Maceachen (5)

1 DILS (CEA, LIST) - Département Ingénierie Logiciels et Systèmes
2 LAMIH - Laboratoire d'Automatique, de Mécanique et d'Informatique industrielles et Humaines - UMR 8201
3 Sherpa Engineering
4 ALL4TEC
5 Continental Automotive France [Toulouse]

Embedded systems are becoming ubiquitous and are subject to demanding standards in both safety and reliability. Modern vehicles, which must respect ISO 26262 standards, use up to 100 Electronic Control Unit (ECUs). Advances in microelectronics enable integration of more functions in the ECU, but at the cost of greater unreliability in hostile operating environments, such as electromagnetic fields, temperature, and humidity. Their software mainly drives embedded system flexibility and smartness. However due to lack of automation, its validation and verification (V&V) takes place throughout the design process and tends to swallow up 40% to 50% of the total development cost. The 'Enhanced Quality Using Intensive Test Analysis on Simulators' (EQUITAS) project intends to limit the impact of software V&V on embedded systems cost and time-To-market while improving reliability and functional safety. Project activities include: development of a continuous tool-chain to automate the V&V process of embedded computers, improving the relevance of the test campaigns by detecting the redundant tests using equivalence classes, providing assistance for hardware failure effect analysis (FMEA), and finally assessing the tool-chain under the ISO 26262 requirements.

Mots clés: Chains; Control systems; Cost benefit analysis; Costs; Crashworthiness; Electromagnetic fields; Equivalence classes; Microelectronics; Quality control; Reliability analysis; Software reliability; Software testing; Systems analysis; Testing; Verification; Automotive; Electronic control units; Embedded computers; Hardware failures; Operating environment; Project activities; Validation and verification; Virtual plateform; Embedded systems

Domaines: Informatique [cs]

Reda Nouacer, Manel Djemal, Smail Niar, Gilles Mouchard, N. Rapin, et al.. Enhanced quality using intensive test and analysis on simulators. 2015 Euromicro Conference on Digital System Design, Aug 2015, Funchal, Portugal. pp.152-157, ⟨10.1109/DSD.2015.17⟩. ⟨cea-01836305⟩