Contemporary embedded systems, which process streaming data such as signal, audio, or video data, are an increasingly important part of our lives. Shared resources (e.g. memories) help to reduce the chip area and power consumption of these systems, saving costs in high volume consumer products. Resource sharing, however, introduces new timing interdependencies between system components, which must be analyzed to verify that the initial timing requirements of the application domain are still met. Graphs with synchronous dataflow (SDF) semantics are frequently used to model these systems. In this paper, we present a method to integrate resource sharing into SDF graphs. Using these graphs and a throughput constraint, we will derive deadlines for resource accesses and the amount of memory required for an implementation. Then we derive the resource load directly from the SDF description, and perform a formal schedulability analysis to check if the original timing constraints are still met. Finally, we perform an evaluation of our approach using an image processing application and present our results.
{"title":"Optimizing performance analysis for synchronous dataflow graphs with shared resources","authors":"Daniel Thiele, R. Ernst","doi":"10.5555/2492708.2492869","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5555/2492708.2492869","url":null,"abstract":"Contemporary embedded systems, which process streaming data such as signal, audio, or video data, are an increasingly important part of our lives. Shared resources (e.g. memories) help to reduce the chip area and power consumption of these systems, saving costs in high volume consumer products. Resource sharing, however, introduces new timing interdependencies between system components, which must be analyzed to verify that the initial timing requirements of the application domain are still met. Graphs with synchronous dataflow (SDF) semantics are frequently used to model these systems. In this paper, we present a method to integrate resource sharing into SDF graphs. Using these graphs and a throughput constraint, we will derive deadlines for resource accesses and the amount of memory required for an implementation. Then we derive the resource load directly from the SDF description, and perform a formal schedulability analysis to check if the original timing constraints are still met. Finally, we perform an evaluation of our approach using an image processing application and present our results.","PeriodicalId":105068,"journal":{"name":"2012 Design, Automation & Test in Europe Conference & Exhibition (DATE)","volume":"60 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115615713","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2012-03-12DOI: 10.1109/DATE.2012.6176695
Yaojun Zhang, Xiaobin Wang, Yong Li, A. Jones, Yiran Chen
As one promising candidate for next-generation nonvolatile memory technologies, spin-transfer torque random access memory (STT-RAM) has demonstrated many attractive features, such as nanosecond access time, high integration density, non-volatility, and good CMOS process compatibility. In this paper, we reveal an important fact that has been neglected in STT-RAM designs for long: the write operation of a STT-RAM cell is asymmetric based on the switching direction of the MTJ (magnetic tunneling junction) device: the mean and the deviation of the write latency for the switching from low- to high-resistance state is much longer or larger than that of the opposite switching. Some special design concerns, e.g., the write-pattern-dependent write reliability, are raised by this observation. We systematically analyze the root reasons to form the asymmetric switching of the MTJ and study their impacts on STT-RAM write operations. These factors include the thermal-induced statistical MTJ magnetization process, asymmetric biasing conditions of NMOS transistors, and both NMOS and MTJ device variations. We also explore the design space of different design methodologies on capturing the switching asymmetry of different STT-RAM cell structures. Our experiment results proved the importance of full statistical design method in STT-RAM designs for design pessimism minimization.
{"title":"Asymmetry of MTJ switching and its implication to STT-RAM designs","authors":"Yaojun Zhang, Xiaobin Wang, Yong Li, A. Jones, Yiran Chen","doi":"10.1109/DATE.2012.6176695","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/DATE.2012.6176695","url":null,"abstract":"As one promising candidate for next-generation nonvolatile memory technologies, spin-transfer torque random access memory (STT-RAM) has demonstrated many attractive features, such as nanosecond access time, high integration density, non-volatility, and good CMOS process compatibility. In this paper, we reveal an important fact that has been neglected in STT-RAM designs for long: the write operation of a STT-RAM cell is asymmetric based on the switching direction of the MTJ (magnetic tunneling junction) device: the mean and the deviation of the write latency for the switching from low- to high-resistance state is much longer or larger than that of the opposite switching. Some special design concerns, e.g., the write-pattern-dependent write reliability, are raised by this observation. We systematically analyze the root reasons to form the asymmetric switching of the MTJ and study their impacts on STT-RAM write operations. These factors include the thermal-induced statistical MTJ magnetization process, asymmetric biasing conditions of NMOS transistors, and both NMOS and MTJ device variations. We also explore the design space of different design methodologies on capturing the switching asymmetry of different STT-RAM cell structures. Our experiment results proved the importance of full statistical design method in STT-RAM designs for design pessimism minimization.","PeriodicalId":105068,"journal":{"name":"2012 Design, Automation & Test in Europe Conference & Exhibition (DATE)","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116986772","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2012-03-12DOI: 10.1109/DATE.2012.6176478
Stephan Werner, Oliver Oey, D. Göhringer, M. Hübner, J. Becker
Efficiently managing the parallel execution of various application tasks onto a heterogeneous multi-core system consisting of a combination of processors and accelerators is a difficult task due to the complex system architecture. The management of reconfigurable multi-core systems which exploit dynamic and partial reconfiguration in order to, e.g. increase the number of processing elements to fulfill the performance demands of the application, is even more complicated. This paper presents a special virtualization layer consisting of one central server and several distributed computing clients to virtualize the complex and adaptive heterogeneous multi-core architecture and to autonomously manage the distribution of the parallel computation tasks onto the different processing elements.
{"title":"Virtualized on-chip distributed computing for heterogeneous reconfigurable multi-core systems","authors":"Stephan Werner, Oliver Oey, D. Göhringer, M. Hübner, J. Becker","doi":"10.1109/DATE.2012.6176478","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/DATE.2012.6176478","url":null,"abstract":"Efficiently managing the parallel execution of various application tasks onto a heterogeneous multi-core system consisting of a combination of processors and accelerators is a difficult task due to the complex system architecture. The management of reconfigurable multi-core systems which exploit dynamic and partial reconfiguration in order to, e.g. increase the number of processing elements to fulfill the performance demands of the application, is even more complicated. This paper presents a special virtualization layer consisting of one central server and several distributed computing clients to virtualize the complex and adaptive heterogeneous multi-core architecture and to autonomously manage the distribution of the parallel computation tasks onto the different processing elements.","PeriodicalId":105068,"journal":{"name":"2012 Design, Automation & Test in Europe Conference & Exhibition (DATE)","volume":"54 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117210318","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mutation Analysis (MA) is a fault-based simulation technique that is used to measure the quality of testbenches in error (mutant) detection. Although MA effectively reports the living mutants to designers, it suffers from the high simulation cost. This paper presents a probabilistic MA preprocessing technique, Error Propagation Analysis (EPA), to speed up the MA process. EPA can statically estimate the probability of the error propagation with respect to each mutant for guiding the observation-point insertion. The inserted observation-points will reveal a mutant's status earlier during the simulation such that some useless testcases can be discarded later. We use the mutant model from an industrial EDA tool, Certitude, to conduct our experiments on the OpenCores' RT-level designs. The experimental results show that the EPA approach can save about 14% CPU time while obtaining the same mutant status report as the traditional MA approach.
{"title":"A probabilistic analysis method for functional qualification under Mutation Analysis","authors":"Hsiu-Yi Lin, Chun-Yao Wang, Shih-Chieh Chang, Yung-Chih Chen, Hsuan-Ming Chou, Ching-Yi Huang, Yen-Chi Yang, Chun-Chien Shen","doi":"10.1109/DATE.2012.6176448","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/DATE.2012.6176448","url":null,"abstract":"Mutation Analysis (MA) is a fault-based simulation technique that is used to measure the quality of testbenches in error (mutant) detection. Although MA effectively reports the living mutants to designers, it suffers from the high simulation cost. This paper presents a probabilistic MA preprocessing technique, Error Propagation Analysis (EPA), to speed up the MA process. EPA can statically estimate the probability of the error propagation with respect to each mutant for guiding the observation-point insertion. The inserted observation-points will reveal a mutant's status earlier during the simulation such that some useless testcases can be discarded later. We use the mutant model from an industrial EDA tool, Certitude, to conduct our experiments on the OpenCores' RT-level designs. The experimental results show that the EPA approach can save about 14% CPU time while obtaining the same mutant status report as the traditional MA approach.","PeriodicalId":105068,"journal":{"name":"2012 Design, Automation & Test in Europe Conference & Exhibition (DATE)","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121260170","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2012-03-12DOI: 10.1109/DATE.2012.6176704
Kyuseung Han, Seongsik Park, Kiyoung Choi
It has been one of the most fundamental challenges in architecture design to achieve high performance with low power while maintaining flexibility. Parallel architectures such as coarse-grained reconfigurable architecture, where multiple PEs are tightly coupled with each other, can be a viable solution to the problem. However, the PEs are typically controlled by a centralized control unit, which makes it hard to parallelize programs requiring different control of each PE. To overcome this limitation, it is essential to convert control flows into data flows by adopting the predicated execution technique, but it may incur additional power consumption. This paper reveals power issues in the predicated execution and proposes a novel technique to mitigate power overhead of predicated execution. Contrary to the conventional approach, the proposed mechanism can decide whether to suppress instruction execution or not without decoding the instructions and does not require additional instruction bits, thereby resulting in energy savings. Experimental results show that energy consumed by the reconfigurable array and its configuration memory is reduced by up to 23.9%.
{"title":"State-based full predication for low power coarse-grained reconfigurable architecture","authors":"Kyuseung Han, Seongsik Park, Kiyoung Choi","doi":"10.1109/DATE.2012.6176704","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/DATE.2012.6176704","url":null,"abstract":"It has been one of the most fundamental challenges in architecture design to achieve high performance with low power while maintaining flexibility. Parallel architectures such as coarse-grained reconfigurable architecture, where multiple PEs are tightly coupled with each other, can be a viable solution to the problem. However, the PEs are typically controlled by a centralized control unit, which makes it hard to parallelize programs requiring different control of each PE. To overcome this limitation, it is essential to convert control flows into data flows by adopting the predicated execution technique, but it may incur additional power consumption. This paper reveals power issues in the predicated execution and proposes a novel technique to mitigate power overhead of predicated execution. Contrary to the conventional approach, the proposed mechanism can decide whether to suppress instruction execution or not without decoding the instructions and does not require additional instruction bits, thereby resulting in energy savings. Experimental results show that energy consumed by the reconfigurable array and its configuration memory is reduced by up to 23.9%.","PeriodicalId":105068,"journal":{"name":"2012 Design, Automation & Test in Europe Conference & Exhibition (DATE)","volume":"35 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126938609","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2012-03-12DOI: 10.1109/DATE.2012.6176463
A. Rajeev, S. Mohalik, S. Ramesh
Correct functioning of automotive embedded controllers requires hard real-time constraints on a number of system parameters. To avoid costly design iterations, these timing constraints should be verified during the design stage itself. In this paper, we describe a formal verification technique for a class of timing constraints called timing synchronization constraints in the recent adaptation of AUTOSAR standard (WPII-1.2 Timing Subgroup, Release 4.0). These constraints require, unlike the well studied end-to-end latency constraint, simultaneous analysis of multiple task/message chains or multiple data items traversing through a task/message chain. We show that they can be analyzed by model-checking with finite-state monitors. We also demonstrate this method on a case-study from the automotive domain.
{"title":"Verifying timing synchronization constraints in distributed embedded architectures","authors":"A. Rajeev, S. Mohalik, S. Ramesh","doi":"10.1109/DATE.2012.6176463","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/DATE.2012.6176463","url":null,"abstract":"Correct functioning of automotive embedded controllers requires hard real-time constraints on a number of system parameters. To avoid costly design iterations, these timing constraints should be verified during the design stage itself. In this paper, we describe a formal verification technique for a class of timing constraints called timing synchronization constraints in the recent adaptation of AUTOSAR standard (WPII-1.2 Timing Subgroup, Release 4.0). These constraints require, unlike the well studied end-to-end latency constraint, simultaneous analysis of multiple task/message chains or multiple data items traversing through a task/message chain. We show that they can be analyzed by model-checking with finite-state monitors. We also demonstrate this method on a case-study from the automotive domain.","PeriodicalId":105068,"journal":{"name":"2012 Design, Automation & Test in Europe Conference & Exhibition (DATE)","volume":"141 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114141404","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2012-03-12DOI: 10.1109/DATE.2012.6176617
J. Zimmermann, O. Bringmann, W. Rosenstiel
Synchronous dataflow (SDF) models are gaining increased attention in designing software-intensive embedded systems. Especially in the signal processing and multimedia domain, dataflow-oriented models of computation are commonly used by designers reflecting the regular structure of algorithms and providing an intuitive way to specify both sequential and concurrent system functionality. Furthermore, dataflow-oriented models are qualified for capturing dynamic behavior due to data-dependent execution. In this work, we extend those data-dependent dataflow models to include dynamic power management (DPM) aspects of a target platform while still meeting hard timing requirements. We capture different system states in a multi-domain scenario approach and develop a state space based on this SDF representation for system analysis and optimization. By traversing the state space of the power-aware scenario modeling we derive a power management configuration with minimized energy dissipation depending on dynamic system behavior.
{"title":"Analysis of multi-domain scenarios for optimized dynamic power management strategies","authors":"J. Zimmermann, O. Bringmann, W. Rosenstiel","doi":"10.1109/DATE.2012.6176617","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/DATE.2012.6176617","url":null,"abstract":"Synchronous dataflow (SDF) models are gaining increased attention in designing software-intensive embedded systems. Especially in the signal processing and multimedia domain, dataflow-oriented models of computation are commonly used by designers reflecting the regular structure of algorithms and providing an intuitive way to specify both sequential and concurrent system functionality. Furthermore, dataflow-oriented models are qualified for capturing dynamic behavior due to data-dependent execution. In this work, we extend those data-dependent dataflow models to include dynamic power management (DPM) aspects of a target platform while still meeting hard timing requirements. We capture different system states in a multi-domain scenario approach and develop a state space based on this SDF representation for system analysis and optimization. By traversing the state space of the power-aware scenario modeling we derive a power management configuration with minimized energy dissipation depending on dynamic system behavior.","PeriodicalId":105068,"journal":{"name":"2012 Design, Automation & Test in Europe Conference & Exhibition (DATE)","volume":"53 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128531076","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2012-03-12DOI: 10.1109/DATE.2012.6176530
A. Canedo, M. A. Faruque
In industrial cyber-physical systems (CPS)1, the ability of a system to react quicker to its inputs by just a few milliseconds can be translated to billions of dollars in additional profit over just a few years of uninterrupted operation. Therefore, it is important to reduce the cycle time of industrial CPS applications not only for the economical benefits but also for waste minimization, energy reduction, and safer working environments. In this paper, we present a novel method to reduce the execution time of CPS applications through a holistic software/hardware method that enables automatic parallelization of standardized industrial automation languages and their execution in multi-core processors. Through a realistic CPS, we demonstrate that parallel execution reduces the cycle time of the application and increases the life-cycle through better utilization of the mechanical, electrical, and computing resources.
{"title":"Towards parallel execution of IEC 61131 industrial cyber-physical systems applications","authors":"A. Canedo, M. A. Faruque","doi":"10.1109/DATE.2012.6176530","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/DATE.2012.6176530","url":null,"abstract":"In industrial cyber-physical systems (CPS)1, the ability of a system to react quicker to its inputs by just a few milliseconds can be translated to billions of dollars in additional profit over just a few years of uninterrupted operation. Therefore, it is important to reduce the cycle time of industrial CPS applications not only for the economical benefits but also for waste minimization, energy reduction, and safer working environments. In this paper, we present a novel method to reduce the execution time of CPS applications through a holistic software/hardware method that enables automatic parallelization of standardized industrial automation languages and their execution in multi-core processors. Through a realistic CPS, we demonstrate that parallel execution reduces the cycle time of the application and increases the life-cycle through better utilization of the mechanical, electrical, and computing resources.","PeriodicalId":105068,"journal":{"name":"2012 Design, Automation & Test in Europe Conference & Exhibition (DATE)","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129089554","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2012-03-12DOI: 10.1109/DATE.2012.6176586
R. Hamouche, R. Kocik
This paper presents component-based and aspect-oriented methodology and tool for designing and developing Real-Time Embedded Control Systems (RTECS). This methodology defines a component model for describing modular and reusable software to cope with the increasing complexity of embedded systems. It proposes an aspect-oriented approach to address explicitly the extra-functional concerns of RTECS, to describe separately transversal real time and security constraints, and to support model properties analysis. The benefits of this methodology are shown via an example of Legway control software, a version of the Segway vehicle built with Lego Mindstorms NXT.
{"title":"Component-based and aspect-oriented methodology and tool for Real-Time Embedded Control Systems Design","authors":"R. Hamouche, R. Kocik","doi":"10.1109/DATE.2012.6176586","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/DATE.2012.6176586","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents component-based and aspect-oriented methodology and tool for designing and developing Real-Time Embedded Control Systems (RTECS). This methodology defines a component model for describing modular and reusable software to cope with the increasing complexity of embedded systems. It proposes an aspect-oriented approach to address explicitly the extra-functional concerns of RTECS, to describe separately transversal real time and security constraints, and to support model properties analysis. The benefits of this methodology are shown via an example of Legway control software, a version of the Segway vehicle built with Lego Mindstorms NXT.","PeriodicalId":105068,"journal":{"name":"2012 Design, Automation & Test in Europe Conference & Exhibition (DATE)","volume":"33 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121315288","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2012-03-12DOI: 10.1109/DATE.2012.6176585
Bailey Miller, F. Vahid, T. Givargis
Cyber-physical systems have become more difficult to test as hardware and software complexity grows. The increased integration between computing devices and physical phenomena demands new techniques for ensuring correct operation of devices across a broad range of operating conditions. Manual test methods, which involve test personnel, require much effort and expense and lengthen a device's time to market. We describe a method for test automation of devices wherein a device is connected to a digital mockup of the physical environment, where both the device and the digital mockup are managed by PC-based software. A digital mockup consists of a behavioral model of the interacting environment, such as a medical ventilator device connected to a digital mockup of human lungs. We introduce Mockup Electronic Data Sheets (MEDS) as a method for embedding model information into the digital mockup, allowing PC software to automatically detect configurable model parameters and facilitate test automation. We summarize a case study showing the effectiveness of digital mockups and MEDS as a framework for test automation on a medical ventilator, resulting in 5× less time spent testing compared to methods requiring test personnel.
{"title":"MEDS: Mockup Electronic Data Sheets for automated testing of cyber-physical systems using digital mockups","authors":"Bailey Miller, F. Vahid, T. Givargis","doi":"10.1109/DATE.2012.6176585","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/DATE.2012.6176585","url":null,"abstract":"Cyber-physical systems have become more difficult to test as hardware and software complexity grows. The increased integration between computing devices and physical phenomena demands new techniques for ensuring correct operation of devices across a broad range of operating conditions. Manual test methods, which involve test personnel, require much effort and expense and lengthen a device's time to market. We describe a method for test automation of devices wherein a device is connected to a digital mockup of the physical environment, where both the device and the digital mockup are managed by PC-based software. A digital mockup consists of a behavioral model of the interacting environment, such as a medical ventilator device connected to a digital mockup of human lungs. We introduce Mockup Electronic Data Sheets (MEDS) as a method for embedding model information into the digital mockup, allowing PC software to automatically detect configurable model parameters and facilitate test automation. We summarize a case study showing the effectiveness of digital mockups and MEDS as a framework for test automation on a medical ventilator, resulting in 5× less time spent testing compared to methods requiring test personnel.","PeriodicalId":105068,"journal":{"name":"2012 Design, Automation & Test in Europe Conference & Exhibition (DATE)","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116310288","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}