Hardware Software Interaction Analysis: Practical Case and Lessons Learnt

The Hardware Software Interaction Analysis (HSIA) is conducted on the hardware/software interface, primarily to identify the software response to hardware failure. The HSIA identifies the event chains and relationships between events. The objectives of a Hardware Software Interaction Analysis are to systematically examine the interfaces between hardware circuits and software systems to ensure that hardware failure modes are being taken into account in the software requirements. Conversely it may also cover the analysis of the potential stress induced to hardware components by the software and especially in case of anomalous behaviour. This paper gives a general description of the method. Then, a case study is presented, based on its application on a real space project. The main lessons learnt are discussed, with focus on possible extensions of the method.