Microcontrollers are increasingly present in embedded deployments and dependable systems, for which malfunctions due to hardware ageing can have severe impact. The lack of deployable techniques for ageing monitoring on these devices has spread the application of guard bands to prevent timing errors due to degradation. Applying this static technique can limit performance and lead to sudden failures as devices age. In this paper, we follow a software-based self-testing approach to design monitoring of hardware degradation for microcontrollers. Deployable in the field, our technique leverages timing windows of variable lengths to determine the maximum operational frequency of the devices. We empirically validate the method on real hardware and find that it consistently detects temperature-induced degradations in maximum operating frequency of up to 13.79 % across devices for 60 °C temperature increase.

翻译：微控制器在嵌入式部署和可信系统中日益普及，其硬件老化导致的故障可能产生严重影响。由于缺乏可部署的老化监测技术，当前广泛采用防护带来防止因性能退化引起的时序错误。这种静态技术的应用会限制设备性能，并随着器件老化导致突发故障。本文采用基于软件的自主测试方法，设计针对微控制器硬件退化的监测方案。该技术可在实际场景中部署，通过可变长度的时序窗口确定器件最大工作频率。我们在真实硬件上进行了实证验证，结果表明该方法能稳定检测温度引起的最大工作频率退化——当温度升高60°C时，各器件最大工作频率退化幅度可达13.79%。