HW/SW Interferences

Abstract

One problem of reuse of components will be, according to Smith [46], that not only the reused component must be tested in isolation, but the test has to cover its functionality in the whole product or system. With the QAGAN approach such a statement is granted after all tests for new are passed. But the component has also to be thoroughly tested in combination with the rest of the system, just as it does for a standard monolithic system.

Key Points, Exercises, Recommended Further Reading, References/Websites

1.1 1. Key Points

• Change in SW can have influence on HW and vice versa.

• The necessary tests in such situations are regression tests.

• Eventually the whole system should be tested.

1.2 2. Key Points

• Cooperation between HW and SW is often not planned in advance. One reason might be that they are developed in parallel but not together.

• SW can influence HW severely to create lower environmental impact and vice versa. Also, combinations for example of a few storage media or many storage media and their final measurable energy consumption are not really understood. Detailed investigations are not available or not evaluated for example by the European Commission, such as for lot 9 in Ecodesign directive Schischke et al. [73].

• Many rules are published for better HW/SW cooperation, such as a repository for reliable environmentally tested SW which could overcome also unreliable HW.

• HW often is not really embedded in the SW system.

• HW with too great an energy consumption should be eliminated. Final metrics to measure energy consumption of SW are not fully developed.

• HW could also cause incorrect signals for reading by SW, such as poor battery stability.

1.3 Exercises

• (1) Find out by means of the examples of the Energy Star (http://http://www.spec.org/power/ and https://www.snia.org) where HW and SW need more cooperation.

• (2) Which problems for the authors of the impact study do you see in this lot regarding HW and SW cooperation?

1.4 Recommended Further Reading

Checklists from ISO/TR 14062:2002–11 [25] in Appendix 4 [73].

Project website for project of European Commission for ENTR Lot 9 Server study in the frame of Ecodesign Directive, Implementing measures: www.ecodesign-servers.eu.

1.5 References/Websites

Smith [46], Hoffmann [53] and Schischke et al. [73].