CAREER: An Integrated Approach to Soft Error Mitigation in CMOS Digital Systems

今天之一？最具挑战性的设计问题是CMOS数字系统中辐射引起的软错误的威胁。在纳米技术中，软错误的频率影响着消费电子和网络市场，而不仅仅是航空航天或军事应用。这项研究旨在开发缓解策略，降低整体软错误率，同时最大限度地减少传统的成本指标，如硅面积，功耗和性能下降。技术扩展和系统复杂性促使设计人员在设计流程中依赖单元库和可重用内核。这项工作调查的基本故障产生和故障传输的辐射引起的软错误在这些积木。通过识别软错误的基本特征，可以制定设计原则，以提高所有类型集成电路的可靠性起点，从航空电子和空间应用到企业服务器，网络路由器和控制系统。这项工作包括模拟辐照个别电路以及实验来分析一个微处理器的完整硬件实现。该研究利用并整合了传统领域，如计算机体系结构，VLSI设计，容错和辐射效应。 这一努力的另一个关键组成部分是从传统上代表性不足的群体中招聘和留住科学和工程专业的学生。PI与田纳西州路易斯·斯托克斯少数民族参与计划联盟在范德比尔特大学合作，提供暑期本科研究机会和专业发展研讨会，以帮助学生准备和成功的研究生院。

One of today?s most challenging design issues is the threat of radiation-induced soft errors in CMOS digital systems. In nanometer technologies, the frequency of soft errors affects the markets of consumer electronics and networking, not just aerospace or military applications. This research aims to develop mitigation strategies that reduce the overall soft error rate while minimizing traditional cost metrics such as silicon area, power consumption, and performance degradation. Both technology scaling and system complexity have motivated designers to rely upon cell libraries and reusable cores in their design flow. This work investigates the fundamental fault generation and fault transport of radiation-induced soft errors within those building blocks. By identifying the fundamental characteristics of soft errors, design principles can be developed to improve the starting point for reliability of all types of integrated circuits, from avionics and space applications to enterprise servers, network routers, and control systems. This work includes simulation of irradiated individual circuits as well as experimentation to analyze the full hardware implementation of a microprocessor. The research leverages and integrates traditional domains such as computer architecture, VLSI design, fault tolerance, and radiation effects. Another critical component of this effort is the recruitment and retention of students in science and engineering from traditionally underrepresented groups. The PI has partnered with the Tennessee Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation program at Vanderbilt University to provide summer undergraduate research opportunities and professional development seminars to help students prepare for and succeed in graduate school.