| Patent application number | Description | Published |
|---|
| 20080229134 | RELIABILITY MORPH FOR A DUAL-CORE TRANSACTION-PROCESSING SYSTEM - In processors having buffers to manage instruction flow referred to as a ReOrder Buffer (ROB) it is shown that these buffers are of the same approximate size of a checkpoint array for architected state. In a particular “morphing mode” in which a pair of processors can be configured to provide different functionalities on demand, a new “High-Reliability” (HR) mode is provided in which the ROB of one of the processors is used for a checkpoint array, and the pair of processors is made to run in lockstep on a single instruction stream under the control of the remaining ROB so as to provide redundant, hence highly-reliable computing. | 09-18-2008 |
| 20080229145 | Method and system for soft error recovery during processor execution - A system for soft error recovery used during processor execution. The system may include a microprocessor, processor, controller, or the like. The system may also include a pipeline to reduce the cycle time of the processor, and a write-back stage within the pipeline. The system may further include an error-correcting code stage before the write-back stage that checks a value to be written by the processor for any error. The error-correcting code stage may correct any error in the value, and the pipeline may lack a recovery unit pipeline. | 09-18-2008 |
| 20080244186 | WRITE FILTER CACHE METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROTECTING THE MICROPROCESSOR CORE FROM SOFT ERRORS - A write filter cache system for protecting a microprocessor core from soft errors and method thereof are provided. In one aspect, data coming from a processor core to be written in primary cache memory, for instance, L1 cache memory system, is buffered in a write filter cache placed between the primary cache memory and the processor core. The data from the write filter is move to the main cache memory only if it is verified that main thread's data is soft error free, for instance, by comparing the main thread's data with that of its redundant thread. The main cache memory only keeps clean data associated with accepted checkpoints. | 10-02-2008 |
| 20080256383 | METHOD AND SYSTEM OF PREDICTING MICROPROCESSOR LIFETIME - A method of predicting the lifetime reliability of an integrated circuit device with respect to one or more failure mechanisms includes breaking down the integrated circuit device into structures; breaking down each structure into elements and devices; evaluating each device to determine whether the device is vulnerable to the failure mechanisms and eliminating devices determined not to be vulnerable; estimating, for each determined vulnerable device, the impact of a failure of the device on the functionality of the specific element associated therewith, and classifying the failure into a fatal failure or a non-fatal failure, wherein a fatal failure causes the element employing the given device to fail; determining, for those devices whose failures are fatal, an effective stress degree and/or time; determining one or more of a failure rate and a probability of fatal failure for the devices, and aggregating the same across the structures and the failure mechanisms. | 10-16-2008 |
| 20080263326 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR AN EFFICIENT MULTI-PATH TRACE CACHE DESIGN - A novel trace cache design and organization to efficiently store and retrieve multi-path traces. A goal is to design a trace cache, which is capable of storing multi-path traces without significant duplication in the traces. Furthermore, the effective access latency of these traces is reduced. | 10-23-2008 |
| 20080270702 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR AN EFFICIENT MULTI-PATH TRACE CACHE DESIGN - A novel trace cache design and organization to efficiently store and retrieve multi-path traces. A goal is to design a trace cache, which is capable of storing multi-path traces without significant duplication in the traces. Furthermore, the effective access latency of these traces is reduced. | 10-30-2008 |
| 20080313509 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PREVENTING SOFT ERROR ACCUMULATION IN REGISTER ARRAYS - A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for preventing soft error accumulation. A number of cycles between references to a register are counted. Instructions are injected that reference the register for preventing soft error accumulation in response to a determination that the number of cycles is greater than a threshold. | 12-18-2008 |
| 20090013207 | PREDICTING MICROPROCESSOR LIFETIME RELIABILITY USING ARCHITECTURE-LEVEL STRUCTURE-AWARE TECHNIQUES - A method of predicting the lifetime reliability of an integrated circuit device with respect to one or more failure mechanisms includes breaking down the integrated circuit device into structures; breaking down each structure into elements and devices; evaluating each device to determine whether the device is vulnerable to the failure mechanisms and eliminating devices determined not to be vulnerable; estimating, for each determined vulnerable device, the impact of a failure of the device on the functionality of the specific element associated therewith, and classifying the failure into a fatal failure or a non-fatal failure, wherein a fatal failure causes the element employing the given device to fail; determining, for those devices whose failures are fatal, an effective stress degree and/or time; determining one or more of a failure rate and a probability of fatal failure for the devices, and aggregating the same across the structures and the failure mechanisms. | 01-08-2009 |
| 20090048808 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MONITORING AND ENHANCING ON-CHIP MICROPROCESSOR RELIABILITY - A system and method for projecting reliability to manage system functions includes an activity module which determines activity in the system. A reliability module interacts with the activity module to determine a reliability measurement for the module in real-time based upon the activity and measured operational quantities of the system. A management module manages actions of the system based upon the reliability measurement input from the reliability module. This may be to provide corrective action, to reallocate resources, increase reliability of the module, etc. | 02-19-2009 |
| 20090083492 | COST-CONSCIOUS PRE-EMPTIVE CACHE LINE DISPLACEMENT AND RELOCATION MECHANISMS - A hardware based method for determining when to migrate cache lines to the cache bank closest to the requesting processor to avoid remote access penalty for future requests. In a preferred embodiment, decay counters are enhanced and used in determining the cost of retaining a line as opposed to replacing it while not losing the data. In one embodiment, a minimization of off-chip communication is sought; this may be particularly useful in a CMP environment. | 03-26-2009 |
| 20090144669 | METHOD AND ARRANGEMENT FOR ENHANCING PROCESS VARIABILITY AND LIFETIME RELIABILITY THROUGH 3D INTEGRATION - A method of enhancing semiconductor chip process variability and lifetime reliability through a three-dimensional (3D) integration applied to electronic packaging. Also provided is an arrangement for implementing the inventive method. | 06-04-2009 |
| 20090144678 | METHOD AND ON-CHIP CONTROL APPARATUS FOR ENHANCING PROCESS RELIABILITY AND PROCESS VARIABILITY THROUGH 3D INTEGRATION - A method and on-chip controller for enhancing semiconductor chip process variability and lifetime reliability through a three-dimensional (3D) integration applied to electronic packaging. Also provided is an on-chip reliability/variability controller arrangement for implementing the inventive method. | 06-04-2009 |
| 20100015732 | SEMICONDUCTOR CHIP REPAIR BY STACKING OF A BASE SEMICONDUCTOR CHIP AND A REPAIR SEMICONDUCTOR CHIP - Base semiconductor chips, each comprising a plurality of chiplets, are manufactured and tested. For a base semiconductor chip having at least one non-functional chiplet, at least one repair semiconductor chiplet, which provides the same functionality as one of the at least one non-functional chiplet is designed to provide, is vertically stacked. The at least one repair semiconductor chiplet provides the functionality that the at least one non-functional chiplet is designed to provide to the base semiconductor chip. A functional multi-chip assembly is formed, which provides the same functionality as a base semiconductor chip in which all chiplets are functional. In case a first attempt to repair the base semiconductor chip by stacking repair semiconductor chips is unsuccessful, additional repair semiconductor chips may be subsequently stacked to fully repair the base semiconductor chip. | 01-21-2010 |
| 20100083203 | Modeling System-Level Effects of Soft Errors - Mechanisms for modeling system level effects of soft errors are provided. Mechanisms are provided for integrating device-level and component-level soft error rate (SER) analysis mechanisms with micro-architecture level performance analysis tools during a concept phase of the IC design to thereby generate a SER analysis tool. A first SER profile for the IC design is generated by applying the SER analysis tool to the IC design. At a later phase of the IC design, detailed information about SER vulnerabilities of logic and storage elements within the IC design are obtained and the first SER profile is refined based on the detailed information about SER vulnerabilities to thereby generate a second SER profile for the IC design. Modifications to the IC design are made at one or more phases of the IC design based on one of the first SER profile or the second SER profile. | 04-01-2010 |
