Robust System Design with Built-In Soft-Error Resilience

  • Authors:
  • Subhasish Mitra;Norbert Seifert;Ming Zhang;Quan Shi;Kee Sup Kim

  • Affiliations:
  • Intel;Intel;Intel;Intel;Intel

  • Venue:
  • Computer
  • Year:
  • 2005

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Abstract

Soft errors, also called single-event upsets, are radiation-induced transienterrors caused by neutrons generated from cosmic rays and alpha particlesgenerated by packaging material. Traditionally, soft errors were regarded as a major concern only for space applications. Yet, for designs manufactured at advanced technology nodes驴such as 90 nm or 65 nm驴system-level soft errors occur more frequently than in previous generations.Chip designers must address soft errors very early, starting from the product definition phase and continuing through the architecture planning, circuit design, logic design, and postlayoutphases. The effects of soft errors in sequential elements such as flip-flops,latches, and combinational logic must be evaluated, and effective protection mechanismsincorporated into the design.