Cost-efficient soft error protection for embedded microprocessors

Device scaling trends dramatically increase the susceptibility of microprocessors to soft errors. Further, mounting demand for embedded microprocessors in a wide array of safety critical applications, ranging from automobiles to pacemakers, compounds the importance of addressing the soft error problem. Historically, soft error tolerance techniques have been targeted mainly at high-end server markets, leading to solutions such as coarse-grained modular redundancy and redundant multithreading. However, these techniques tend to be prohibitively expensive to implement in the embedded design space. To address this problem, we first present a thorough analysis of the effects of soft errors on a productiongrade, fully synthesized implementation of an ARM926EJ-S embedded microprocessor. We then leverage this analysis in the design of two orthogonal low-cost soft error protection techniques that can be tuned to achieve variable levels of fault coverage as a function of area and power constrain...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: CASES
• Authors: Jason A. Blome, Shantanu Gupta, Shuguang Feng, Scott A. Mahlke
• Keywords: CASES 2006, Embedded Microprocessor, Soft Error Problem, Soft Errors, System Software