Dynamic Memory Protection Area Configuration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for protecting memory chips in safety-related electronic systems, such as those in motor vehicles, face challenges in achieving an optimal balance between error detection and correction capabilities and memory requirements, particularly due to the inefficiency of spatial redundancy and the limitations of temporal checking, which can result in insufficient safety levels and high costs.
Innovation Solution
A method that dynamically adjusts and configures protection areas within a memory system using check data, allowing for improved error detection and correction capabilities while minimizing memory requirements, by generating and managing check data during writing and reading operations, and enabling independent configuration of multiple protection areas.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If spatial redundancy is used to protect memory chips, then reliability is improved, but chip area doubles which increases cost
Solution Approach 1:
The memory system is segmented into protected and unprotected areas, allowing selective protection of only critical memory regions rather than entire memory chips. This segmentation enables protection of safety-critical data while minimizing the area requiring redundancy, thus resolving the contradiction between reliability and chip area.
Solution Approach 2:
Different quality levels of protection are applied to different memory areas based on their safety-criticality. Critical memory areas receive full error protection through redundancy, while non-critical areas use lighter protection mechanisms. This local differentiation optimizes the balance between reliability and resource consumption.
2Reliability
If temporal checking is used to protect memory, then reliability is improved, but extensive time resources are required which exceeds FTTI
Solution Approach 1:
Error detection and correction codes are pre-calculated and stored alongside user data in the memory. This preliminary preparation eliminates the need for extensive runtime checking, as the protection mechanisms are already in place before actual memory operations occur, thus meeting strict FTTI requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The system skips extensive temporal checking by using pre-computed check data that can be quickly verified. Instead of performing comprehensive error checking that would exceed FTTI, the system uses efficiently verifiable check codes that can be validated in minimal time.
3Reliability
If check data is added to protect memory areas, then error detection capability is improved, but memory overhead increases by 25-100%
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of applying full error protection to entire memory chips, the system applies partial protection only to safety-critical memory areas. This selective approach reduces memory overhead from the typical 25-100% to a minimal overhead of only 8 bytes per protection area, achieving sufficient error detection capability without excessive resource consumption.
4Reliability
If address bits are weighted differently for error correction, then error correction performance is improved, but adaptability to different memory sizes decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The protection area configuration is made dynamic and reconfigurable at runtime rather than being fixed by hard-wired address weighting. The system can adaptively define protection areas of different sizes and positions based on actual safety requirements, enabling flexible adaptation to various memory sizes and configurations while maintaining optimal error correction performance.
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a method for protecting user data of a read/write storage device of an electronic computing system in a motor vehicle. Using test data relating to the run time of the electronic computing system, at least one protection region for protecting a storage region of the read/write storage device is established or removed or is specified in such a manner that the extent and/or position of the protection region with respect to a total storage region comprised by the read/write storage device is changed. The invention further relates to a corresponding electronic computing system.