D2CyberSoft: A design automation tool for soft error analysis of Dependable Cybercars

Abstract

Next generation of automobiles (also known as cybercars) will escalate the proliferation of electronic control units (ECUs) to implement novel distributed control applications such as steer-by-wire (SBW), brake-by-wire, etc. Although the use of electronic embedded systems improves performance, driving comfort, safety, and economy for the customer; this electronic control of automotive systems makes these systems susceptible to soft errors, which can significantly reduce the availability of these systems. Enhancing reliability and availability at a minimum additional cost is a major challenge in automotive systems design. In this paper, we propose D2CyberSoft-a design automation tool for cybercars that facilitate cybercar designers in selecting designs with minimum cost overhead to make safety-critical automotive functions less vulnerable to soft errors. D2CyberSoft aids designers by providing built-in models, easy to specify inputs, and easy to interpret outputs. We elaborate Markov models that form the basis of D2CyberSoft using SBW as a case study. We further provide evaluation insights obtained from D2CyberSoft.