A methodologic project to characterize and model COTS component reliability

Abstract

OATAO is an open access repository that collects the work of Toulouse researchers and makes it freely available over the web where possible. This is an author-deposited version published in : http://oatao.univ-toulouse.fr/ Eprints ID : 18034 The industries of transportation as the space industry are faced with a strong global economic competition which sets economic constraints on the cost of the functions. The use of COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) components in embedded systems is more and more necessary to shorten the development cycles and reduce manufacturing costs. The application of electronic components comes overwhelmingly from public sectors whose requirement is to provide, in short development cycles, technological innovations including risk and cost mitigation. These development cycles must incorporate the specific constraints of embedded systems in terms of reliability, dependability, and availability, held in harsh environment and life. Due to the low volume of components supplying the market of embedded systems, component manufacturers are unlikely to provide information necessary to supporting folders for certification or qualification. It is therefore necessary for the Space, Aeronautics and Automotive industries to characterize the performance and robustness of these COTS components in the operational and environmental conditions of their applications. This paper presents the objectives and main challenges of a sponsored project dedicated to characterize and model COTS reliability.

A Competing Risk Model of Reliability Analysis for NAND-Based SSDs in Space Application

“…Compared with military SSDs, commercial SSDs can easily lower costs and offer technological innovations, contributing to their increasing popularity in the aerospace industry. However, COTS products are primarily designed for use in benign environments where equipment is easily accessed for repair or replacement, therefore their space application makes a matter of concern well beyond the consumer level of electronics [5]. As such, modeling and estimating their reliability and state of health under actual space environment accurately to demonstrate the feasibility and avoid catastrophic events is crucial and significant from both a cost-effective and a safety point of view.…”