Compiler-Injected SIHFT for Embedded Operating Systems

Random hardware faults are a major concern for critical systems, especially when they are employed in high-radiation environments such as aerospace applications. While specialised hardware already exists for implementing fault tolerance, software solutions, named Software-Implemented Hardware Fault Tolerance (SIHFT), offer higher flexibility at a lower cost. This work describes a compiler-based approach for inserting instruction-level fault detection mechanisms in both the application code and the operating system. An experimental evaluation on a STM32 board running FreeRTOS shows the effectiveness of the proposed approach in detecting faults.