Programming-level and redundancy-free method for enhancing software reliability against transient errors in hardware

Author(s):  
Bahman Arasteh ◽  
Reza Solhi

Software play remarkable roles in different critical applications. On the other hand, due to the shrinking of transistor size and reduction in supply voltage, radiation-induced transient errors (soft errors) have become an important source of computer systems failure. As the rate of transient hardware faults increases, researchers have investigated software techniques to control these faults. Performance overhead is the main drawback of software-implemented methods like recovery blocks that use technical redundancy. Enhancing the software reliability against soft errors by utilizing inherently error masking (invulnerable) programming structures is the main goal of this study. During the programming phase and at the source code level, programmers can select different storage classes such as automatic, global, static and register for the data into their program without paying attention to their inherent reliability. In this study, the inherent effects of these storage classes on the program reliability are investigated. Extensive series of profiling and fault-injection experiments were performed on the set of benchmark programs implemented with different storage classes. Regarding the results of experiments, we find that the programs implemented with automatic storage classes have inherently higher reliability than the programs with static and register storage classes without performance overhead. This finding enables the programmers to develop highly reliable programs without technical redundancy and performance overhead.

Author(s):  
Daniel Mueller-Gritschneder ◽  
Eric Cheng ◽  
Uzair Sharif ◽  
Veit Kleeberger ◽  
Pradip Bose ◽  
...  

AbstractDriven by technology scaling, integrated systems become more susceptible to various causes of random hardware faults such as radiation-induced soft errors. Such soft errors may cause malfunction of the system due to corruption of data or control flow, which may lead to unacceptable risks for life or property in safety-critical applications. Hence, safety-critical systems deploy protection techniques such as hardening and redundancy at different layers of the system stack (circuit, logic, architecture, OS/schedule, compiler, software, algorithm) to improve resiliency against soft errors. Here, cross-layer resilience techniques aim at finding lower cost solutions by providing accurate estimation of soft error resilience combined with a systematic exploration of protection techniques that work collaboratively across the system stack. This chapter demonstrates how to apply the cross-layer resilience principle on custom processors, fixed-hardware processors, accelerators, and SRAM memories (with a focus on soft errors) and presents key insights obtained.


MRS Advances ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (42) ◽  
pp. 2887-2892
Author(s):  
Brittany Muntifering ◽  
Jianmin Qu ◽  
Khalid Hattar

ABSTRACTThe formation and stability of radiation-induced defects in structural materials in reactor environments significantly effects their integrity and performance. Hydrogen, which may be present in significant quantities in future reactors, may play an important role in defect evolution. To characterize the effect of hydrogen on cascade damage evolution, in-situ TEM self-ion irradiation and deuterium implantation was performed, both sequentially and concurrently, on nickel. This paper presents preliminary results characterizing dislocation loop formation and evolution during room temperature deuterium implantation and self-ion irradiation and the consequence of the sequence of irradiation. Hydrogen isotope implantation at room temperature appears to have little or no effect on the final dislocation loop structures that result from self-ion irradiation, regardless of the sequence of irradiation. Tilting experiments emphasize the importance of precise two-beam conditions for characterizing defect size and structure.


2017 ◽  
Vol 78 ◽  
pp. 190-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphael de Oliveira Rocha ◽  
Frank Sill Torres ◽  
Rodrigo Possamai Bastos

Author(s):  
K. Loganovsky ◽  
◽  
P. Fedirko ◽  
K. Kuts ◽  
D. Marazziti ◽  
...  

Background.Exposure to ionizing radiation could affect the brain and eyes leading to cognitive and vision impairment, behavior disorders and performance decrement during professional irradiation at medical radiology, including interventional radiological procedures, long-term space flights, and radiation accidents. Objective. The objective was to analyze the current experimental, epidemiological, and clinical data on the radiation cerebro-ophthalmic effects. Materials and methods. In our analytical review peer-reviewed publications via the bibliographic and scientometric bases PubMed / MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, and selected papers from the library catalog of NRCRM – the leading institution in the field of studying the medical effects of ionizing radiation – were used. Results. The probable radiation-induced cerebro-ophthalmic effects in human adults comprise radiation cataracts, radiation glaucoma, radiation-induced optic neuropathy, retinopathies, angiopathies as well as specific neurocognitive deficit in the various neuropsychiatric pathology including cerebrovascular pathology and neurodegenerative diseases. Specific attention is paid to the likely stochastic nature of many of those effects. Those prenatally and in childhood exposed are a particular target group with a higher risk for possible radiation effects and neurodegenerative diseases. Conclusions. The experimental, clinical, epidemiological, anatomical and pathophysiological rationale for visual system and central nervous system (CNS) radiosensitivity is given. The necessity for further international studies with adequate dosimetric support and the follow-up medical and biophysical monitoring of high radiation risk cohorts is justified. The first part of the study currently being published presents the results of the study of the effects of irradiation in the participants of emergency works at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (ChNPP). Key words: ionizing radiation, cerebroophthalmic effects, neurocognitive deficit, radiation accident, radiation cataracts, macular degeneration.


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