Execution cost interval refinement in static software analysis

Embedded system software timing and power consumption or, in general, execution costs are state and input data dependent. Therefore, formal analysis of such dependencies leads to execution cost intervals rather than single values. These intervals depend on system concurrency, execution paths and process states, as well as on target architecture properties. This paper presents an approach to modeling and analysis of process behavior using intervals. Unlike other static software analysis approaches, it considers program properties and the execution context, i.e. the current state and input of a process. The example of an ATM switch component demonstrates significant improvements in analysis precision. Keywords— Software Timing Analysis, Real-Time Systems, Embedded System Design, Design Automation