A System For Coarse Grained Memory Protection In Tiny Embedded Processors

Many embedded systems contain resource constrained microcontrollers where applications, operating system components and device drivers reside within a single address space with no form of memory protection. Programming errors in one application can easily corrupt the state of the operating system and other applications on the microcontroller. In this paper we propose a system that provides memory protection in tiny embedded processors.1 . Our system consists of a software run-time working with minimal low-cost architectural extensions to the processor core that prevents corruption of state by buggy applications. We restrict memory accesses and control flow of applications to protection domains within the address space. The software run-time consists of a Memory map: a flexible and efficient data structure that records ownership and layout information of the entire address space. Memory map checks are done for store instructions by hardware accelerators that significantly improve the p...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: DAC
• Authors: Ram Kumar, Akhilesh Singhania, Andrew Castner, Eddie Kohler, Mani B. Srivastava
• Keywords: DAC 2007, Design Automation, Memory Map Checks, Memory Protection, Protected Memory Region