EXFI: a low cost Fault Injection System for embedded Microprocessor-based Boards

Evaluating the faulty behavior of low-cost embedded microprocessor-based boards is an increasingly important issue, due to their adoption in many safety critical systems. The architecture of a complete Fault Injection environment is proposed, integrating a module for generating a collapsed list of faults, and another for performing their injection and gathering the results. To address this issue, the paper describes a software-implemented Fault Injection approach based on the Trace Exception Mode available in most microprocessors. The authors describe EXFI, a prototypical system implementing the approach, and provide data about some sample benchmark applications. The main advantages of EXFI are the low cost, the good portability, and the high efficienc

File Carving and Malware Identification Algorithms Applied to Firmware Reverse Engineering

Modern society depends on critical infrastructure (CI) managed by Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs). PLCs depend on firmware, though firmware security vulnerabilities and contents remain largely unexplored. Attackers are acquiring the knowledge required to construct and install malicious firmware on CI. To the defender, firmware reverse engineering is a critical, but tedious, process. This thesis applies machine learning algorithms, from the le carving and malware identification fields, to firmware reverse engineering. It characterizes the algorithms\u27 performance. This research describes and characterizes a process to speed and simplify PLC firmware analysis. The system partitions binary firmwares into segments, labels each segment with a le type, determines the target architecture of code segments, then disassembles and performs rudimentary analysis on the code segments. The research discusses the system\u27s accuracy on a set of pseudo-firmwares. Of the algorithms this research considers, a combination of a byte-value frequency file carving algorithm and a support vector machine (SVM) algorithm using information gain (IG) for feature selection achieve the best performance. That combination correctly identifies the file types of 57.4% of non-code bytes, and the architectures of 85.3% of code bytes. This research applies the Firmware Disassembly System to a real-world firmware and discusses the contents

Code density concerns for new architectures

Reducing a program\u27s instruction count can improve cache behavior and bandwidth utilization, lower power consumption, and increase overall performance. Nonetheless, code density is an often overlooked feature in studying processor architectures. We hand-optimize an assembly language embedded benchmark for size on 21 different instruction set architectures, finding up to a factor of three difference in code sizes from ISA alone. We find that the architectural features that contribute most heavily to code density are instruction length, number of registers, availability of a zero register, bit-width, hardware divide units, number of instruction operands, and the availability of unaligned loads and stores. We extend our results to investigate operating system, compiler, and system library effects on code density. We find that the executable starting address, executable format, and system call interface all affect program size. While ISA effects are important, the efficiency of the entire system stack must be taken into account when developing a new dense instruction set architecture

An architecture and technology for Ambient Intelligence Node

The era of separate networks is over. The existing technology leaders are preparing a big change in recreation of environment around us. There are several faces for this change. Names like Ambient Intelligence, Ambient Network, IP Multimedia Subsystem and others were created all over the Globe. Regardless of which name is used the new network will combine three main functional principles---it will be: contextual aware, ubiquitous access and intelligent interfaces unified network. Within this thesis two major aspects are defined. First, the definition of the Ambient Intelligence Environment concept is presented. Secondly the architecture vectors for the technology are named. A short overview of the existing technology is followed by details for the chosen technology---FPGA. The overall specifications are incorporated in the design and demonstration of a basic Ambient Intelligence Node created in the System on the Chip (SoC) FPGA technology

Managing embedded software development in China

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, February 2004.Includes bibliographical references.As microprocessors have become smaller and cheaper, they are embedded in more and more non-computing products, such as washing machines, elevators, MP3 players and printers. It has been estimated that these products consumed 99% of the worldwide production of microprocessors. I In general, "Embedded system" means a computer system sitting inside a product other than a computer to make the product more flexible and controllable. For example, a modem washing machine has a control software system to execute different "washing programs" for different types of clothes. Embedded systems usually have strict requirements on response time, and the response must be generated within a finite and specified period, though depending on the situation, the time could be within a few milliseconds or a few seconds. Because of the special requirement on response time, embedded systems are sometimes called real-time systems. Embedded systems can be divided into two categories: hard and soft, according to the degree of required "timeliness" 2 . A hard embedded system is stringent on that the response must occur within a specified timeline. Typical examples are flight-control systems and missile control systems. A soft embedded system is less strict: response time is important but the system still can function properly given occasionally missed deadline. Examples are mobile phones, printers, and medical devices. This paper is only concerned with development of the soft-embedded systems, and hence the term "embedded systems" in the paper means "soft embedded systems".by Wei Hu.S.M

Thermal Investigations Of Flip Chip Microelectronic Package With Non-Uniform Power Distribution [TK7874. G614 2004 f rb] [Microfiche 7607].

Arah aliran pempakejan sistem-sistem dan subsistem mikroelektronik adalah kearah pengurangan saiz dan peningkatan prestasi, di mana kedua-duanya menyumbang kepada peningkatan kadar penjanaan haba. The trend in packaging microelectronic systems and subsystems has been to reduce size and increase performance, both of which contribute to increase heat generation