Our next event:
November 17, 2011: Dinner/induction event at 6:30 pm (by invitation only) followed by an open-to-the-public talk by R. Iris Bahar, Associate Professor of Computer Engineering at Brown University, speaking at 8:00 pm in Sci 101.
Title: Can Your Circuit Tell You When It’s Failing?
Abstract: With billions of transistors now integrated on a single chip, it becomes more and more difficult to obtain 100% error-free computation. Instead, it is becoming common to include mechanisms “on-chip” that can automatically detect and correct errors during normal circuit operation. In this talk, I will introduce a method for efficient run time error detection for digital logic circuits based on the use of invariant relationships, which exist within the circuit logic itself. I will present techniques to automatically identify the most useful invariant relationships to include in the error detection logic such that the probability of error detection is maximized while minimizing the additional hardware and delay overhead. Our results show that significant error detection is possible—even with only a 10% area overhead—while minimizing impact on delay and power.