Examination of the Possibilities for Integrated Testing of Embedded Systems

Abstract

Separate testing of hardware and software of embedded systems is insufficient. Communication between hardware and software parts needs to be tested during the integrated testing. Discussions about this problem are practically unavailable. Black-box criteria are used for hardware and software testing. This creates the conditions for formulating a unified test generation task and a single template for the generation of tests, as well as enabling a comparison between the criteria of test generation. Black-box criteria make it possible to start generating tests in the early design stages, once the initial software prototype is established. The test object is described in a finite state machine form. The availability of state variables enables the search for a compromise between test performance and quality in test generation. Experiments with two benchmarks showed which criterion of the black box approach is the most suitable for hardware and software testing and that the generation of integration tests according to two criteria is appropriate. The results are important for choosing a reasonable approach to embedded system integration testing.