ECC Transformation Circuit for Continuous Data Protection
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Solution Overview
Problem
As semiconductor manufacturing technologies advance to feature sizes below 90 nanometers, storage devices become increasingly sensitive to soft errors, leading to unacceptable levels of silent data corruption in RAM memories and other storage devices, which existing ECC schemes fail to adequately address by leaving data unprotected between error checking and re-generation.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of an ECC transform unit that continuously protects data by generating and modifying error correction codes according to different ECC schemes, ensuring that data remains error-free by using a combination of source and target ECC schemes, thereby preventing silent data corruption and errors caused by soft errors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If data is transmitted between different ECC schemes with checking and re-generation, then error correction capability is improved, but data remains unprotected during the intermediate process leading to silent data corruption
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies continuity of useful action by maintaining continuous ECC protection through the intermediate process. Instead of checking and re-generating ECC with a gap in protection, the system continuously generates target ECC from source ECC while data is being processed, ensuring that protection is never interrupted. This eliminates the vulnerability window where silent data corruption could occur.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-generating the target ECC from the source ECC before the data actually needs to be protected by the target scheme. This allows the target ECC to be ready in advance, and any errors in the intermediate data can be detected and corrected before they propagate, preventing silent data corruption.
2Productivity
If feature sizes are decreased to increase storage density, then productivity is improved, but sensitivity to soft errors increases leading to higher error rates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies parameter changes by transforming the ECC parameters from one scheme to another through the intermediate generation process. As feature sizes decrease and error characteristics change, the system can adapt by generating appropriate target ECC parameters from source ECC, maintaining reliability despite the physical parameter changes in the technology node.
Data Source
AI summary
In one embodiment, a system comprises a source configured to provide data and a source error correction code (ECC) generated according to a source ECC scheme; a circuit comprising an ECC transform unit configured to generate a target ECC from the data, detect an error in the data responsive to the source ECC, and correct the error in the data, wherein the target ECC is generated according to a target ECC scheme different from the source ECC scheme, and wherein the ECC transform unit is configured to continuously protect the data with at least one of the source ECC and the target ECC; and a target coupled to receive the data and the target ECC from the circuit.