Achieving Completeness in Multicore Interference Channel Identification

Following A(M)C 20-193 guidance for the assurance of multicore processors, multicore interference channels must be identified and their impact quantified. Demonstrating that the interference channel identification is complete (that is, no interference channels have been missed) is critical for meeting the objectives. A missed interference channel could impact hosted software, impacting verification results, as well as cause software failures or missed deadlines. In this paper, we identify some ‘simple’ and ‘complex’ interference channels and discuss how state-of-the-art methods identify them. This highlights the properties that are required of a methodology to claim that completeness has been achieved: a systematic methodology, traceability from documentation through to analysis, and on-target validation. This is supported by results from interference channel identification on avionicsrelevant multicore platforms.