Embedded Computer Systems: Debuggability and Energy Efficiency

Department of Computer Engineering & Science School of Electrical Engineering, The University of Belgrade
Presents
Embedded Computer Systems: Debuggability and Energy Efficiency

By
Aleksandar Milenković
LaCASA Laboratory
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
The University of Alabama in Huntsville

ABSTRACT

Our society increasingly relies upon embedded computer systems that have become essential to all aspects of our lives. Faster, cheaper, smaller, more sophisticated, and more power-efficient embedded computer systems spur new applications that require very complex software stacks.

The growing software and hardware complexity and tightening time-to-market deadlines make software development and debugging the most critical aspect of embedded system development. In this talk we will explore traditional approaches, recent trends, and challenges in program debugging of embedded systems, especially in mission-critical cyber-physical systems (e.g., automotive, avionics, medical) that need to be tested in production environments and must be completely bug-free. We will make the case for new on-chip hardware structures coupled with sophisticated software debuggers that enable real-time, unobtrusive, and cost-effective program and data tracing. We will show how the proposed structures dramatically reduce the required trace port bandwidths achieving a 34-fold improvement for program execution traces and a 38-fold improvement for data value traces over current industry standards.

Energy efficiency is a prime design requirement for mobile device manufacturers and smart application developers alike. It is driven by several key factors, including limited energy capacity of batteries, cost considerations favoring less expensive packaging, and user convenience favoring lightweight designs with small form factors that operate for long periods without battery recharges. In the second part of this talk, we will discuss our experimental environment for energy-profiling of programs running on mobile platforms and how it can be used to achieve more energy-efficient communication and computation.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY

Aleksandar Milenković is an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He currently directs the Laboratory for Advanced Computer Architectures and Systems. His research focuses on advanced architectures for the next generation of high-performance, cost-effective, and secure computing devices, embedded systems, reconfigurable computing, and sensor networks. Dr. Milenković received his Dipl. Ing., M.Sc., and Ph.D. in Computer Engineering and Science from the University of Belgrade. More information is available at http://www.ece.uah.edu/~milenka/.