Lifetime optimization for real-time embedded systems considering electromigration effects

In this article, we propose a new lifetime task optimization technique for real-time embedded processors considering the electromigration-induced reliability. The new approach is based on a recently proposed physics-based electromigration (EM) model for more accurate EM assessment of a power grid network at the chip level. We apply the dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) (by selecting the performance states or p-states of the tasks to manage the power) and thus the lifetime of the processor running different tasks over their periods. We consider both single-rate and multi-rate embedded systems with preemption. To model the mean-time-to-failure (MTTF) of a task for a given p-state, response surface modeling is applied. We then frame the reliability optimization problem as the continuous constrained nonlinear optimization problem in which the system EM-induced reliability is maximized subject to the timing constraints, which is further solved by simulated annealing method. Experimental results show that for low utilization systems, significant reliability improvement can be achieved with even smaller power consumption than existing reliability-ignore scheduling method. The proposed method can lead to near Pareto's front trade-off between the power/energy and the lifetime compared to the existing task scheduling method.