WCET Analysis Techniques

Besides functional correctness, hard real-time systems have to satisfy timing constraints. The key parameter for timing constraints is the worst-case execution time. In this chapter, common timing analysis techniques found in academia and industry are discussed and the three main classes of approaches for a WCET analysis are presented. The static timing analysis is the only method that guarantees safe WCET estimates. It does not rely on the execution of the code under analysis but derives its timing information from the program code combined with abstract models of the hardware architecture. Next, basic terms involved in the static analysis are discussed. The chapter is concluded with a description of the workflow of the leading static WCET analyzer aiT which is also exploited in this work.