Reliable Embedded Systems

Software has a terrible reputation, Bug-ridden software is often blamed for product failures and reliability problems. In some sectors, software has become the scapegoat of poor design practice. It is the weakest link, primarily because its inherently flexible nature is exploited. Hardware problems can be ‘fixed’ in software. Schedule slips impact downstream tasks hardest, such as software development. Time to market pressures force the release of products too early, with the knowledge that bugs can be fixed in the next release. It’s not surprising new engineers are not attracted to software development. Poor tool uptake may be down to resistance to change, perceived deficiencies in the tools, and cost.

Bug-tolerant or right-first-time
Comparison with safety-critical embedded system development in the military, aerospace, automotive, medical and security sectors shows that it doesn’t have to be this way. At the root of both issues is poor software development practice, on the part of managers and engineers. The accepted ‘bug-tolerant’ attitude in some software circles, has to be replaced with the ‘right-first-time’ mantra of chip designers. Tools can, not only make code more efficient and ultimately reliable, but also improve productivity.
The way forward, according to leading academics, is more rigorous, higher levels of abstraction, using model based or functional design approaches and graphical system design. This approach facilitates concurrent hardware, software and mechanical design. High level design tools will open embedded system programming to a new generation of systems and algorithm engineers. If current embedded systems programmers and their managers cannot, or will not adapt, then this dying breed may struggle to find enough traditional single-thread work as the world moves on. Change needs action, and in this case it has to start at the top.

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