Security and Dependability of Embedded Systems: A Computer Architects´ Perspective

Designers of embedded systems have traditionally optimized circuits for speed, size, power and time to market. Recently however, the dependability of the system is emerging as a great concern to the modern designer with the decrease in feature size and the increase in the demand for functionality. Yet another crucial concern is the security of systems used for storage of personal details and for financial transactions. A significant number of techniques that are used to overcome security and dependability are the same or have similar origins. Thus this tutorial will examine the overlapping concerns of security and dependability and the design methods used to overcome the problems and threats. This tutorial is divided into four parts: the first will examine dependability issues due to technology effects; the second will look at reliability aware designs; the third, will describe the security threats; and, the fourth part will illustrate the countermeasures to security and reliability issues.