Feasibility of Software Built-In Test for SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative) Applications

摘要

Software Built-In Test (BIT) is a design technique for collecting information from operational software that will assist in identifying differences between the real Operating Environment and either the Design or Test Environments. The BIT senses and indicates where the software is operating in 'new' or 'overload' environmental conditions and may, therefore, be more likely to fail. (This anomalous situation may be the result of either hardware failure or software design error.) The technical challenge is to incorporate the large number of relatively simple BIT tests into the fault-tolerant and continuously operating environment likely to characterize a solution to the battle management portion of the SDI mission. The management challenge is to provide these technical assists in such a way that they can be implemented in operational software with a minimal increase in software development time; it is then reasonable to expect that BIT will not shift from a hard requirement to a nice-to-have feature as schedule pressures potentially impact development. Our approach overcomes the management problem by providing a standard set of tools for use within the software development environment which will implement BIT with a minimum amount of programmer action.