Publications Memory & Shared-Resource Management
Investigating and Mitigating Contention on Low-End Multi-Core Microcontrollers
Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things Week 2023, May 2023, San Antonio, TX, USA
Abstract
In this paper, we investigate the problem of contention and loss of predictability in modern microcontrollers (MCU). To address this issue, we first present a framework to empirically analyze and observe the impact of interference on low-end MCUs. With carefully crafted evaluation scenarios, we conduct experiments on an Arm’s Musca-A1 platform and provide sufficient evidence that even with common application setups, interference can slowdown applications by several orders of magnitude. Furthermore, we propose an architecture for a novel mitigation system that enables applications to monitor their timing progress slackness and mitigate temporal interference over shared resources. This is achieved by suspending less critical cores and reconfiguring their priority on the bus when intolerable contention delays are present. Our findings emphasize the critical importance of considering the impact of shared resources, such as interconnects and memory access patterns, on low-end multi-core MCUs. It is, therefore, crucial to design mechanisms that can allow MCU-based applications to regain control of their timeliness.
Code and hardware artifacts
Cite this paper
@inproceedings{Cont_MCUs_RAGE23,
title = {{Investigating and Mitigating Contention on Low-End Multi-Core Microcontrollers}},
author = {Oliveira, Daniel and Chen, Weifan and Pinto, Sandro and Mancuso, Renato},
booktitle = {Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things Week 2023},
year = 2023,
month = may,
pages = {221--226},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
address = {San Antonio, TX, USA},
doi = {10.1145/3576914.3587513},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3576914.3587513}
}
TY - CONF AU - Oliveira, Daniel AU - Chen, Weifan AU - Pinto, Sandro AU - Mancuso, Renato TI - Investigating and Mitigating Contention on Low-End Multi-Core Microcontrollers T2 - Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things Week 2023 PY - 2023 DA - 2023/05// PB - Association for Computing Machinery CY - San Antonio, TX, USA SP - 221 EP - 226 DO - 10.1145/3576914.3587513 UR - https://doi.org/10.1145/3576914.3587513 AB - In this paper, we investigate the problem of contention and loss of predictability in modern microcontrollers (MCU). To address this issue, we first present a framework to empirically analyze and observe the impact of interference on low-end MCUs. With carefully crafted evaluation scenarios, we conduct experiments on an Arm’s Musca-A1 platform and provide sufficient evidence that even with common application setups, interference can slowdown applications by several orders of magnitude. Furthermore, we propose an architecture for a novel mitigation system that enables applications to monitor their timing progress slackness and mitigate temporal interference over shared resources. This is achieved by suspending less critical cores and reconfiguring their priority on the bus when intolerable contention delays are present. Our findings emphasize the critical importance of considering the impact of shared resources, such as interconnects and memory access patterns, on low-end multi-core MCUs. It is, therefore, crucial to design mechanisms that can allow MCU-based applications to regain control of their timeliness. ER -
%0 Conference Paper %A Oliveira, Daniel %A Chen, Weifan %A Pinto, Sandro %A Mancuso, Renato %T Investigating and Mitigating Contention on Low-End Multi-Core Microcontrollers %B Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things Week 2023 %D 2023 %P 221-226 %I Association for Computing Machinery %C San Antonio, TX, USA %R 10.1145/3576914.3587513 %U https://doi.org/10.1145/3576914.3587513 %X In this paper, we investigate the problem of contention and loss of predictability in modern microcontrollers (MCU). To address this issue, we first present a framework to empirically analyze and observe the impact of interference on low-end MCUs. With carefully crafted evaluation scenarios, we conduct experiments on an Arm’s Musca-A1 platform and provide sufficient evidence that even with common application setups, interference can slowdown applications by several orders of magnitude. Furthermore, we propose an architecture for a novel mitigation system that enables applications to monitor their timing progress slackness and mitigate temporal interference over shared resources. This is achieved by suspending less critical cores and reconfiguring their priority on the bus when intolerable contention delays are present. Our findings emphasize the critical importance of considering the impact of shared resources, such as interconnects and memory access patterns, on low-end multi-core MCUs. It is, therefore, crucial to design mechanisms that can allow MCU-based applications to regain control of their timeliness.
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"DOI": "10.1145/3576914.3587513",
"abstract": "In this paper, we investigate the problem of contention and loss of predictability in modern microcontrollers (MCU). To address this issue, we first present a framework to empirically analyze and observe the impact of interference on low-end MCUs. With carefully crafted evaluation scenarios, we conduct experiments on an Arm’s Musca-A1 platform and provide sufficient evidence that even with common application setups, interference can slowdown applications by several orders of magnitude. Furthermore, we propose an architecture for a novel mitigation system that enables applications to monitor their timing progress slackness and mitigate temporal interference over shared resources. This is achieved by suspending less critical cores and reconfiguring their priority on the bus when intolerable contention delays are present. Our findings emphasize the critical importance of considering the impact of shared resources, such as interconnects and memory access patterns, on low-end multi-core MCUs. It is, therefore, crucial to design mechanisms that can allow MCU-based applications to regain control of their timeliness."
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D. Oliveira, W. Chen, S. Pinto, and R. Mancuso, “Investigating and Mitigating Contention on Low-End Multi-Core Microcontrollers,” in Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things Week 2023, pp. 221–226, May. 2023, doi: 10.1145/3576914.3587513.
Oliveira, D., Chen, W., Pinto, S., & Mancuso, R. (2023). Investigating and Mitigating Contention on Low-End Multi-Core Microcontrollers. In Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things Week 2023 (pp. 221–226). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3576914.3587513