Lane Error Counter View for Faulty Lane Isolation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Hyperscalers face challenges in accurately diagnosing and disambiguating transient versus persistent errors in data center systems, leading to unscheduled reboots and significant revenue loss, due to the limitations of existing error detection and correction mechanisms that fail to provide timely and precise fault isolation and prediction.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a lane-based normalized historical error counter view that records error occurrences per lane, using ECC or CRC syndromes combined with hardware logic to maintain error counts, providing a historical error map and probabilistic bad lane identification, applicable to high-speed I/O protocols like DDR, UPI, and PCIe.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If existing error detection and correction mechanisms are used, then errors can be detected, but fault isolation and disambiguation of transient versus persistent errors are inaccurate and timely
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments error tracking by creating separate error counters for each physical lane instead of using a single aggregate error counter. This segmentation allows precise identification of which specific lane is experiencing errors, enabling accurate fault isolation without requiring time-consuming analysis of mixed error data from all lanes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds a temporal dimension to error detection by implementing historical error counters that track errors over time. This allows the system to distinguish between transient errors (temporary fluctuations) and persistent errors (consistent failures) by analyzing error patterns across multiple time periods, significantly improving diagnostic accuracy.
2Device complexity
If aggregate error counting is used, then error detection is simple, but lane-specific fault identification is impossible
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the error counting function into multiple lane-specific counters, where each counter tracks errors for a specific physical lane. This segmentation maintains relative structural simplicity while enabling precise lane identification, as each counter independently records errors for its associated lane without requiring complex analysis.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates multiple copies of the error counter structure, one for each physical lane. This copying approach allows the system to maintain a simple, replicated error tracking mechanism for each lane, making fault identification straightforward by simply reading the appropriate lane-specific counter rather than analyzing complex aggregated data.
3Reliability
If comprehensive error tracking is implemented, then fault diagnosis capability is improved, but software complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service error tracking by having the hardware automatically maintain lane-specific error counters and historical error data. This eliminates the need for complex software to manually track and analyze errors from multiple sources, as the hardware itself performs the comprehensive tracking and organizes the data in a readily interpretable format.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent provides direct feedback through lane-specific error counters that immediately reflect the error status of each physical lane. This feedback mechanism enables simple software to quickly determine which lane is faulty by reading the counter values, avoiding complex diagnostic algorithms while maintaining high reliability in fault identification.
4Reliability
If historical error data is collected per lane, then predictive failure analysis is enabled, but data storage requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential error information needed for predictive analysis by maintaining historical counters that record the presence or absence of errors over time periods. Rather than storing complete error logs with all details, the system extracts and retains only the critical temporal pattern data necessary for predicting future failures, significantly reducing storage requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the parameter representation from detailed error logs to normalized error counts over time periods. By transforming the error data into a compact temporal pattern representation (e.g., error counts per time period rather than individual error events), the system enables predictive failure analysis while minimizing the quantity of stored data.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and apparatus relating to lane based normalized historical error counter view for faulty lane isolation and disambiguation of transient versus persistent errors are described. In an embodiment, a plurality of storage entries store error information to be detected at one or more physical lanes of an interface. Faulty lane detection logic circuitry determines which of the one or more physical lanes is faulty or more likely to be faulty based at least in part on the stored error information for the one or more physical lanes of the interface. The stored error information comprises historical error details for the one or more physical lanes of the interface. Other embodiments are also disclosed and claimed.