Dynamic Voter Replacement in Processing Element Redundancy Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for improving integrated circuit reliability through spatial redundancy require significant hardware resources and face challenges in processing when voters fail, as they often necessitate structural changes in processing elements or excessive resource allocation.
Innovation Solution
A voter-based method that acquires a processing element array, selects groups of processing elements to form a voter set, and dynamically replaces faulty voters with similar ones from the set, allowing for redundancy control without additional resource overhead, utilizing N-modular or double modular redundancy modes and static compilation with integer linear programming.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If spatial redundancy technology is used to improve integrated circuit reliability, then reliability is improved, but hardware resource overhead increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes processing elements universal by enabling them to perform both computation and voting functions. Processing elements can be dynamically configured to serve as voters when needed, eliminating the need for dedicated voter hardware and reducing overall hardware resource overhead while maintaining reliability through redundancy
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces dynamic reconfiguration capability where the roles of processing elements can change during operation. When a processing element fails, the system dynamically reassigns voting responsibilities to other processing elements, allowing the system to adapt to failures without requiring excess static hardware resources
2Reliability
If dedicated voters are provided for spatial redundancy, then voting operation reliability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the computation and voting functions into a single unified system using the same processing elements. Instead of having separate dedicated voters, the system combines these functions so that processing elements can perform both computational tasks and voting operations, thereby reducing device complexity while maintaining voting reliability
3Reliability
If enough processing elements are allocated for spatial redundancy, then redundancy control is achieved, but loss of substance increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements partial redundancy by allowing processing elements to serve dual purposes - performing computation during normal operation and switching to voting functions when needed. This partial allocation approach ensures redundancy control capability is achieved without permanently dedicating excessive processing element resources, thereby reducing resource loss
Data Source
AI summary
A voter-based method of controlling a redundancy is provided, including acquiring a processing element array in a target hardware, wherein the processing element array includes a plurality of processing elements, selecting a plurality of groups of processing elements from the processing element array so as to generate a voter set, wherein a corresponding voter is generated for each group of the plurality of groups of processing elements, and the corresponding voter configured to perform a voting operation in a redundancy control, acquiring, in response to a message indicating a fault state of a detected voter, a target voter from the voter set so as to replace the detected voter, and re-performing the voting operation in the redundancy control by using the target voter. An electronic device and a storage medium are further provided, which are implemented based on the processing element array of the target hardware.