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US 2011/0214014 A1Published application
Microprocessor and method for detecting faults therein
AssigneeThe Regents of the University of Michigan
InventorsValeria Bertacco, Todd Michael Austin, Smitha Shyam, Kypros Constantinides, Sujay Phadke
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Abstract
A method for detecting microprocessor hardware faults includes sending at least one input signal to a logic block within the microprocessor, collecting an output response to the input signal from the logic block, and determining whether the output response matches an expected output response of the logic block.
Claims9
A method for detecting microprocessor hardware faults comprising:
- partitioning the microprocessor's runtime computation into execution intervals;
- and
- during each of the execution intervals, (i) sampling at least one storage element input signal of the microprocessor at differing times during a single clock cycle, (ii) determining whether the sampled storage element input signals differ, and (iii) creating a record of an occurrence of a hardware fault in another storage element if the sampled storage element input signals differ.
A microprocessor comprising:
- a plurality of storage elements electrically connected with logic blocks of the microprocessor and configured to (i) sample at least one storage element input signal of the microprocessor at differing times during a single clock cycle, (ii) determine whether the sampled storage element input signals differ, and (iii) create a record of an occurrence of a hardware fault in at least one of the plurality of storage elements if the sampled storage element input signals differ.
A microprocessor having a silicon area comprising:
- a plurality of transistors;
- and
- a fault detection circuit occupying less than 20% of the silicon area of the microprocessor and configured to detect faults at runtime in at least 80% of the plurality of transistors.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.