contact information

IRISA
Campus de Beaulieu
35042 RENNES Cedex
FRANCE

Phone number. + 33 299 847 415

e-mail: antoine.colin@irisa.fr

who ami ?

Since February 2003	Expert engineer in the CAPS research group, IRISA - Rennes. Working on the PACCMAN project (a compiler for cryptography ASIP).
November 2001 to February 2003	Postdoc at the University of York (Real-Time Systems Group). Portability of Worst Case Execution Time Analysis Methods.
1998 - 2001 Rennes University France	PhD in computer science Solidor research group at IRISA, Rennes, France. Research topic: Static Worst Case Execution Time Analysis.
1997 - 1998 Rennes University	DEA in computer science (DEA is the french equivalent of master's degree).
1993 - 1998 INSA	Engineering degree in Computer Science, Institut National des Sciences Appliques (INSA Rennes).

current activity

Paccman: A compiler for Cryptography ASIP
The PACCMAN project (PlAteforme de Composants Cryptographiques pour Multi-Applications Nationales,) aims at designing and producing a ``French'' cryptographic platform. This platform will be composed of a cryptography ASIP (Application Specific Integrated Processor) and a complete compiler tool-chain (including debugger and profiler).

past activities

pWCET.com - A tool for Probabilistic Worst Case Execution Time analysis
Traditional approaches for worst case execution time (WCET) analysis aim at finding the absolute upper bound on the execution time. For modern high performance processors with, for example, out-of-order execution, these technique may produce estimates for the WCET which are pessimistic due to the simplifications that may need to be made and due to the inherent variability of the execution time. In addition, end to end measurements as used in industry produce estimates of the execution time that potentially underestimate the real worst case execution time.
We introduce the notion of probabilistic hard real-time system as a system which has to meet all the deadlines but for which a (high) probabilistic guarantee suffices.
pWCET combines both measurement and analytical approaches into a model for computing probabilistically bounds on the execution time of the worst case path of sections of code.
The technique behind pWCET is based on combining (probabilistically) the worst case effects seen in individual blocks to build the execution time model of the worst case path of the program (such case may have not been observed in the measurements).

Heptane - a tool for Static Worst Case Execution Time Analysis
Heptane (Hades Embedded Processor Timing ANalyzEr) is a free (licenced under GPL) tool to compute worst-case execution times by static analysis of source code. Heptane is a static WCET analyzer for programs written in Ansi C, and is designed to produce timing information for a Pentium processor (Mips support was recently added). Heptane takes as parameter one C source file and generates a set of XML files giving details on the WCET computations. Files are generated to provide information about: the syntax tree, the control flow graph, basic blocks, and results of all micro-architecture analysis.

publications

• phd Thesis
  1. A. Colin. Estimation de temps d'exécution au pire cas par analyse statique et application aux systèmes d'exploitation temps-réel. Université de Rennes 1, October 2001. (pdf in french - slides in english )
• Journals
  1. A. Colin, I. Puaut, C. Rochange, P. Sainrat. Calcul de majorants de pire temps d'exécution : état de l'art.  Techniques et Sciences Informatiques (TSI), 22(5):651--677, 2003. (postscript)
  2. A. Colin, I. Puaut. Worst Case Execution Time Analysis for a Processor with Branch Prediction.  Real-Time Systems, Special issue on worst-case execution time analysis, 18(2):249-274, April 2000. (postscript)
• International Conferences
  1. A. Colin, S. M. Petters. Experimental Evaluation of Code Properties for WCET Analysis.   In Proceedings of the 24th Real-Time Systems Symposium RTSS 2003, Cancun, Mexico, December 3-5 2003. (postscript)
  2. G. Bernat, A. Colin, S. M. Petters. WCET Analysis of Probabilistic Hard Real-Time Systems.   In Proceedings of the 23rd Real-Time Systems Symposium RTSS 2002, Austin, Texas, December 3-5 2002. (postscript)
  3. A. Colin, G. Bernat. Scope-tree: a Program Representation for Symbolic Worst-Case Execution Time Analysis.  Proc. of the 14th Euromicro Conference on Real-Time Systems, Vienna, June 2002. (pdf)
  4. A. Colin, I. Puaut. A modular and retargetable framework for tree-based WCET analysis.  Proc. of the 13th Euromicro Conference on Real-Time Systems, pages 37--44, Delft, The Netherlands, June 2001. (postscript)
  5. A. Colin, I. Puaut. Worst-Case Execution Time Analysis of the RTEMS Real-Time Operating System.  Proc. of the 13th Euromicro Conference on Real-Time Systems, pages 191--198, Delft, The Netherlands, June 2001. (postscript)
• Workshops
  1. A. Colin, D. Decotigny, P. Chevochot, I. Puaut. Are COTS suitable for building distributed fault-tolerant real-time systems ?.  Workshop on parallel and distributed real-time systems (WPDRTS'00), LNCS 1800, pages 699-705, Cancun, Mexico, May 2000. (postscript)
• National Conferences
  1. A. Colin, I. Puaut. Analyse de temps d'exécution au pire cas du système d'exploitation temps-réel RTEMS.  Seconde Conférence Française sur les Systèmes d'Exploitation (CFSE2), pages 73--84, Paris, France, April 2001. (postscript)
  2. E. Anceaume, G. Cabillic, P. Chevochot, D. Decotigny, A. Colin, I. Puaut. Un support d'exécution flexible pour applications distribuées temps-réel dur.  Première Conférence Française sur les Systèmes d'Exploitation (CFSE'1), pages 109-120, June 1999. (postscript)
• Research reports
  1. G. Bernat, A. Colin, S. M. Petters. pWCET: A tool for probabilistic Worst-Case Execution Time Analysis of Real-Time Systems.   Technical Report YCS-2003-353 , Department of Computer Science, University of York, UK, February 2003. (pdf)
  2. A. Colin, I. Puaut, C. Rochange, P. Sainrat. Calcul de majorants de pire temps d'exécution : état de l'art.   Research report IRISA, NoPI1461, May 2002. (postscript)
  3. A. Colin, I. Puaut. A modular and retargetable framework for tree-based WCET analysis.  Research report IRISA, NoPI1386, March 2001. (postscript)
  4. P. Chevochot, I. Puaut, G. Cabillic, A. Colin, D. Decotigny, M. Banâtre. Hades: a distributed system for dependable hard real-time applications built from COTS components.  Research report IRISA, NoPI1357, October 2000. (postscript)
  5. A. Colin, I. Puaut. Worst-case timing analysis of the RTEMS real-time operating system.  Research report IRISA, NoPI1236, November 1999. (postscript)