Soft Error Protection in Individual Memory Devices
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsDouglas J. Joseph, Mark B. Ritter, José A. Tierno
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Abstract
Techniques are disclosed for minimizing the effects of soft errors associated with memory devices that are individually accessible. By way of example, a method of organizing a column in a memory array of a memory device protected by an error correction code comprises the step of maximizing a distance of the error correction code by maximizing a physical distance between memory bits associated with a memory line within the column protected by the error correction code. Other soft error protection techniques may include use of a feed forward error correction code or use of a memory operation (e.g., read or write operation) suppress and retry approach.
Claims10
A method of protecting against one or more soft errors in an individual memory device, comprising the steps of:
- obtaining from a memory controller an error correction code generated over at least a portion of address and control signals associated with the memory device;
- using the error correction code to correct any single bit soft error on the portion of the address and control signals protected by the code;
- and
- detecting any multi-bit soft error on the portion of the address and control signals protected by the code.
A method of protecting against one or more soft errors in an individual memory device, comprising the steps of:
- obtaining from a memory controller a parity generated over at least a portion of address and control signals associated with the memory device;
- using the parity to detect any soft error on the portion of the address and control signals protected by the parity;
- suppressing an operation to the memory device when a soft error is detected;
- and
- retrying the operation.
A method of organizing memory lines in memory arrays of an individual memory device, comprising the step of:
- physically locating the memory lines in columns of the memory arrays so as to reflect error correcting capabilities of an error correction code used to protect the individual memory device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.