Randomization for Safer, more Reliable and Secure, High-Performance Automotive Processors

The automotive domain is witnessing a relentless transition to autonomous cars demanding high-performance processors to timely execute complex, critical, decision-making software. The other side of the coin is that high-performance processors include hardware features like shared multilevel caches and multiple cores that expose the system to significant security threats, challenge time predictability, and jeopardize reliable operation due to the use of advanced process technology. In this paper, we discuss how introducing randomization in the non-functional behavior of certain hardware components helps to achieve a three-fold objective while preserving high-average performance capabilities of high-performance processors: improving the security of complex processors, favoring time predictability via probabilistic analysis, and enhancing reliability against aging and voltage noise.