Timing Analysis

Timing Anaylsis

funded by: Deutsche Telekom
funding level: $150,000
duration: 01/01/1997 - 12/31/1998 (no-cost extensions to 12/31/2000)
PI: Frank Mueller
related funding: ONR, awarded to David Whalley, Florida State University

Worst-case execution time (WCET) prediction deals with the static analysis of tasks to tightly predict their worst-case behavior for modern architectures. This work is a prerequisite for schedulability analysis. We are one of the leading groups in the WCET area.

Static Cache Simulation and its Applications
This work shows that cache behavior can be predicted statically for a large number of cache references.
A formal description of the control-flow analysis and the static cache simulation can be found in a publication. Applications include
fast instruction cache performance analysis,
bounding execution time for real-time systems,
an extension to set associative caches for bounding execution time,
parametric models for timing analysis,
a comparison with dynamic timing analysis techniques,
real-time debugging,
architectural support for predictable caching, and more.
For a comprehensive discussion, see the Ph.D. dissertation.
Language support for real-time systems includes work on the Gnu Ada Translator (GNAT), in particular in runtime system. A real-time version of the runtime system suitable for hard real-time applications has been designed and implemented (see MithOS under FSU Pthreads). Current work also includes a distributed virtual shared memory extension of the runtime system (see Concurrent and Distributed Programming).