David Broman and Michael Zimmer and Yooseong Kim and Hokeun Kim and Jian Cai and Aviral Shrivastava and Stephen A. Edwards and Edward A. Lee

EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley

Technical Report No. UCB/EECS-2013-161

September 19, 2013

http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2013/EECS-2013-161.pdf

In general-purpose software applications, computation time is just a quality factor: faster is better. In cyber-physical systems (CPS), however, computation time is a correctness factor: missed deadlines for hard real-time applications, such as avionics and automobiles, can result in devastating, life-threatening consequences. Although many modern modeling languages for CPS include the notion of time, implementation languages such as C lack any temporal semantics. Consequently, models and programs for CPS are neither portable nor guaranteed to execute correctly on the real system; timing is merely a side effect of the realization of a software system on a specific hardware platform. In this position paper, we present the research initiative for a precision timed (PRET) infrastructure, consisting of languages, compilers, and microarchitectures, where timing is a correctness factor. In particular, the timing semantics in models and programs must be preserved during compilation to ensure that the behavior of real systems complies with models. We also outline new research and design challenges present in such an infrastructure.

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BibTeX citation:

@techreport{Broman:EECS-2013-161,
    Author= {Broman, David and Zimmer, Michael and Kim, Yooseong and Kim, Hokeun and Cai, Jian and Shrivastava, Aviral and Edwards, Stephen A. and Lee, Edward A.},
    Title= {Precision Timed Infrastructure: Design Challenges},
    Year= {2013},
    Month= {Sep},
    Url= {http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2013/EECS-2013-161.html},
    Number= {UCB/EECS-2013-161},
    Abstract= {In general-purpose software applications, computation time is just a
quality factor: faster is better. In cyber-physical systems (CPS),
however, computation time is a correctness factor: missed deadlines
for hard real-time applications, such as avionics and automobiles, can
result in devastating, life-threatening consequences. Although many
modern modeling languages for CPS include the notion of time,
implementation languages such as C lack any temporal
semantics. Consequently, models and programs for CPS are neither
portable nor guaranteed to execute correctly on the real system;
timing is merely a side effect of the realization of a software system
on a specific hardware platform. In this position paper, we present
the research initiative for a precision timed (PRET) infrastructure,
consisting of languages, compilers, and microarchitectures, where
timing is a correctness factor. In particular, the timing semantics in
models and programs must be preserved during compilation to ensure
that the behavior of real systems complies with models. We also
outline new research and design challenges present in such
an infrastructure.},
}

EndNote citation:

%0 Report
%A Broman, David 
%A Zimmer, Michael 
%A Kim, Yooseong 
%A Kim, Hokeun 
%A Cai, Jian 
%A Shrivastava, Aviral 
%A Edwards, Stephen A. 
%A Lee, Edward A. 
%T Precision Timed Infrastructure: Design Challenges
%I EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley
%D 2013
%8 September 19
%@ UCB/EECS-2013-161
%U http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2013/EECS-2013-161.html
%F Broman:EECS-2013-161