A Dual Mode Redundant Approach for Microprocessor Soft Error Hardness

作者：Clark Lawrence T^*; Patterson Dan W; Hindman Nathan D; Holbert Keith E; Maurya Satendra; Guertin Steven M

来源：IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 2011, 58(6): 3018-3025.

DOI：10.1109/TNS.2011.2168828

• Dual mode redundancy
• error correction
• radiation hardening
• register files
• sequential logic circuits
• single event effects
• soft errors
• total ionizing dose

A dual mode redundant (DMR) logic data path with instruction restart that detects errors at register file (RF) write-back is presented. The DMR RF allows SEU correction using parity to detect RF entry nibbles that are correct in one copy but not the other. Detection and backing out incorrect write data are also described. The radiation hardened by design (RHBD) circuits are implemented in 90 nm CMOS. The DMR microarchitecture is described, including pipelining, error handling, and the associated hardware. Heavy ion and proton testing validate the approach. Experimentally measured cross sections and examples of errors due to pipeline SET or RF SEU are shown. Critical node spacing and the mitigation of multiple node collection are also described.

• 出版日期2011-12