Patching Processor Design Errors
Patching Processor Design Errors
复制标题
修补处理器设计错误
DOI：
10.1109/iccd.2006.4380861
复制
发表时间：
2006
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
B. Calder
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
S. Narayanasamy;Bruce Carneal;B. Calder
微处理器可能会有设计错误，逃避测试和验证过程。在装运处理器之后纠正这些错误的成本可能非常昂贵，因为它可能需要更换处理器并拖延装运。在本文中，我们讨论了架构支持，允许修补的设计错误的处理器，已经运出。本文的一个贡献是我们的分析表明，大多数错误可以通过监测处理器中的信号的子集来检测。我们建议在处理器中加入一个可编程的错误检测器，它可以监控这些信号，使用我们讨论的一种机制来检测和启动恢复。所提出的硬件单元可以使用由勘误表签名组成的补丁进行编程，当在设计后阶段发现错误时，制造商开发并分发这些补丁。
Microprocessors can have design errors that escape the test and validation process. The cost to rectify these errors after shipping the processors can be very expensive as it may require replacing the processors and stalling the shipment. In this paper, we discuss architecture support to allow patching the design errors in the processors that have already been shipped out. A contribution of this paper is our analysis showing that a majority of errors can be detected by monitoring a subset of signals in the processors. We propose to incorporate a programmable error detector in the processor that monitors these signals to detect and initiate recovery using one of the mechanisms that we discuss. The proposed hardware units can be programmed using patches consisting of the errata signatures which the manufacturer develops and distributes when errors are discovered in the post-design phase.