Technologies for ensuring functional safety of an electronic device
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsGabriele Boschi, Alessandro Campinoti
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Technologies for ensuring functional safety of an electronic device include receiving data by a primary and secondary hardware unit and performing a function on the data. Each of the primary and secondary hardware unit perform the same function on their respective set of data to generate corresponding results. A determination is made whether the hardware units are synchronized and the results can be compared. If so, the results are compared and an alert is generated if the results do not match.
Claims22
An electronic system for ensuring functional safety of an electronic device, the electronic system comprising:
- a primary hardware unit having a set of first data registers and a first function logic to perform a function using data stored in the set of first data registers to generate a first result;
- a secondary hardware unit having a set of second data registers, a second function logic to perform the function using data stored in the set of second data registers to generate a second result, and a comparator to compare the first result and the second result;
- a timeout manager to generate an alert indicating a component failure detection in response to a determination that the comparator has not been enabled to perform the comparison within a reference time period since a reference point in time,
- wherein the comparator is controllable to perform the comparison between the first result and the second result based on a determination to perform the comparison.
A method for ensuring functional safety of an electronic device, the method comprising:
- receiving data by a primary hardware unit of an electrical system of the electronic device;
- storing, by the primary hardware unit, the data in a set of first data registers of the primary hardware unit;
- receiving the data by a secondary hardware unit of the electrical system;
- storing, by the secondary hardware unit, the data in a set of second data registers of the secondary hardware unit;
- performing, by the primary hardware unit, a function using the data stored in the set of first data registers to generate a first result;
- performing, by the secondary hardware unit, the function using the data stored in the set of second data registers to generate a second result;
- determining whether to perform a comparison of the first result and the second result;
- controlling, in response to a determination to perform the comparison, a comparator of the secondary hardware unit to perform the comparison of the first result and the second result;
- and
- generating, in response to a determination that the comparator has not been enabled to perform the comparison within a reference time period since a reference point in time, an alert indicating a component failure detection.
One or more non-transitory, machine-readable storage media comprising a plurality of instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause a secondary hardware unit of an electrical system of an electrical device to:
- receive data from a data bus, wherein the data is also provided to a primary hardware unit of the electrical system;
- store the data in a set of data registers of the secondary hardware unit;
- receive, from the primary hardware unit, a first result generated by the primary hardware unit by performance of a function on the data stored in a set of data registers of the primary hardware unit;
- perform the function using the data stored in the set of data registers of the secondary hardware unit to generate a second result;
- determine whether to perform a comparison of the first result and the second result;
- control, in response to a determination to perform the comparison, a comparator of the secondary hardware unit to perform the comparison of the first result and the second result;
- and
- generate, in response to a determination that the comparator has not been enabled to perform the comparison within a reference time period since a reference point in time, an alert indicating a component failure detection.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.