MEFISTO: A Series of Prototype Tools for Fault Injection into VHDL Models

Book chapter, 2003

The early assessment of the fault tolerance mechanisms is an essential task in the design of dependable computing systems. Simulation languages offer the necessary support to carry out such a task. Due to its wide spectrum of application and hierarchical features, VHDL is a powerful simulation language. This chapter summarizes the main results of a pioneering effort aimed at developing and experimenting supporting tools for fault injection into VHDL models. The chapter first identifies the possible means to inject faults into a VHDL model. Then, we describe two prototype tools that were developed using each of the main injection strategies previously identified. Finally, some general insights and perspectives are briefly discussed.