Interactive hybrid Control-flow checking method

Abstract

Embedded systems are often used for special purposes. When an embedded system is operating in a critical environment, its reliability should be focused on. One of the methods for improving reliability of embedded systems is Control-flow checking (CFC) of the running program. It is known that the control-flow errors comprise between 33% and 77% of all errors in a computer system [1]. Nowadays there are many control-flow checking methods for different types of computer systems and with various designs. There are hardware checking methods using an external watchdog processor, software methods applied on commercial off-the-shelf processors or hybrid methods. In this paper we are dealing with problems of existing methods, identifying their parameters and presenting a new method of interactive hybrid control-flow checking. This method is a compromise among hybrid methods and tries to optimise the checking speed with high fault coverage.