From dropped batteries to system failures, embedded designs need solid power interruption testing. Reliability demands on embedded products have increased proportionately to the growth of the desired lifetime of the products. To achieve the most comprehensive reliability test in the least time, stress testing must utilize I/O at the point of power interruption.
In some use cases, writes make up less than 5% of the media I/O. Testing power interruption while the device is reading is nearly always useless – leading to a 95% success rate for any storage solution.
This paper will survey the failure points of file systems and flash media, with a discussion of the most effective strategies for ensuring that test design accounts for the variety of real-world failures that can occur. Validation of data and hardware requirements will also be discussed.
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Thom Denholm
Thom Denholm is a technical expert on flash media and file systems, with 35 years experience in embedded designs. He is a frequent speaker at conferences, including the Embedded World conference and Flash Memory Summit for the last 15 years. His strength is translating tough technical topics into easily accessible concepts that designers can immediately implement to solve daily challenges. He also serves as the secretary for the board of directors of the SD card association.