Microarchitecture and Design of a Watchdog Timer for aRISC-V based SoC

Embedded systems which are used in safety-critical applications need highest dependability. External Watchdog Timer (WDT) is utilized to automatically handle and fix the operation time-related failures which are used in these systems. One of the biggest challenges is to find a suitable WDT for particular purpose or it can also be said that the availability of a WDT which can be used for multiple purposes is scarce. The microarchitecture and design of an improved programmable WDT that can be used in safety-critical applications and also in other general purpose embedded systems has been presented in this research. Processor based real time system can be utilized to monitor the system operations because of its broad capabilities and activities in the processor. By looking at the simulation results, efficiency of the suggested WDT to identify defects and take appropriate actions, has been evaluated. Test benches are used to induce errors into the design and check its functionality in real time. Verilog Hardware Description Language has been used to develop this watchdog timer.