Constructing Time-Predictable MPSoCs: Avoid Conflicts in Temporal Control

Today's multicore system architectures are too complex. They are not ready for use in highly dependable, safety-critical applications. We show that a system and component design that avoids conflicts in the temporal control of computations and actions allows us to build less complex multi-core systems whose temporal behavior is easy to predict. At the multi-core system level this can be achieved by using highly autonomous cores and a time-triggered NoC for communication. At the level of single cores the elimination of input-dependent control flow of software and the use of software-controlled memory hierarchies contribute to this aim.