I/O Control Logic for Soft-Error-Tolerant Abnormality Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing control systems in industrial plants face challenges in preventing unnecessary shutdowns due to soft errors in configuration storage areas, which can lead to reduced availability and increased failure rates when determining abnormalities in input and output devices.
Innovation Solution
The control system incorporates a diagnosis unit, error detection unit, abnormality determination unit, and function change unit within the input and output device, which diagnoses the input and output functions, detects soft errors using CRC codes, and determines abnormalities based on multiplexing status, thereby preventing unnecessary shutdowns and maintaining system availability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the system determines abnormalities based on soft errors in configuration storage area, then reliability is improved, but availability deteriorates due to unnecessary shutdowns
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by differentiating between used portions and unused portions of the functional unit. The abnormality determination unit checks whether the soft error location corresponds to an unused portion, and if so, determines that no abnormality exists. This localized differentiation allows the system to maintain high reliability by accurately identifying true abnormalities while avoiding unnecessary shutdowns caused by errors in unused areas, thus resolving the contradiction between reliability and availability.
2Reliability
If the system stops operation upon detecting soft errors, then reliability is improved, but loss of time increases due to unnecessary shutdowns
Solution Approach 1:
The system checks the specific location of soft errors within the functional unit. When errors are detected in unused portions, the abnormality determination unit determines that no abnormality exists and continues operation. This localized error handling prevents unnecessary shutdowns while maintaining system safety, directly addressing the contradiction between reliability and time loss.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent converts potentially harmful soft errors in unused portions into beneficial information by using them to refine abnormality determination. The error detection unit detects soft errors, and the abnormality determination unit uses the location information to distinguish between harmful errors in used portions (requiring shutdown) and benign errors in unused portions (not requiring shutdown). This transforms what could be harmful false positives into a refined diagnostic capability.
3Reliability
If the system checks all soft errors for abnormalities, then reliability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent reduces complexity by applying local quality differentiation between used and unused portions of the functional unit. Instead of implementing complex logic to analyze every possible error scenario, the system simply checks whether the error location corresponds to an unused portion. This localized check significantly simplifies the control logic while maintaining comprehensive error detection capability for actually used areas.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts and isolates the unused portions of the functional unit from the abnormality determination process. By separating the evaluation of used portions (which require strict abnormality checking) from unused portions (which are exempt from abnormality determination), the system reduces the complexity of the overall control logic while maintaining reliable error detection in critical areas.
Data Source
AI summary
There is provided a device including: a diagnosis unit configured to diagnose an input and output function, in an input and output device that is configured to perform an input and output operation in accordance with the input and output function programmed in programmable circuitry; an error detection unit configured to detect an error of a configuration storage area; and an abnormality determination unit configured not to determine an abnormality of the input and output device when the error of the configuration storage area is detected and the input and output function is diagnosed to be normal.