Budget-Dependent Control-Flow Error Detection

The problem of detection of control flow errors in software has been studied extensively in literature and many detection techniques have been proposed. These techniques typically have high memory and performance overheads and hence are unusable for real-time embedded systems which have tight memory and performance budgets. This paper presents two algorithms by which the overheads associated with any detection technique can be lowered by trading off fault coverage. These algorithms are generic and can be applied to any detection technique. They can be applied either individually or cumulatively. The algorithms are validated on a previously proposed detection technique using SPEC benchmark programs. Fault injection experiments suggest that massive savings in overheads can be achieved using the algorithms with just a minor drop off in fault coverage.