Energy efficient SEU-tolerance in DVS-enabled real-time systems through information redundancy

ABSTRACT

Concerns about the reliability of real-time embedded systems that employ dynamic voltage scaling has recently been highlighted [1,2,3], focusing on transient-fault-tolerance techniques based on time-redundancy. In this paper we analyze the usage of information redundancy in DVS-enabled systems with the aim of improving both the system tolerance to transient faults as well as the energy consumption. We demonstrate through a case study that it is possible to achieve both higher fault-tolerance and less energy using a combination of information and time redundancy when compared with using time redundancy alone. This even holds despite the impact of the information redundancy hardware overhead and its associated switching activities

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  B. Hardware
  B.8 Performance and Reliability
      B.8.1 Reliability, Testing, and Fault-Tolerance

Additional Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.3 SPECIAL-PURPOSE AND APPLICATION-BASED SYSTEMS
      Subjects: Real-time and embedded systems

General Terms:
Design, Performance, Reliability

Keywords:
dynamic voltage scaling (DVS), information redundancy, single event upset (SEU)