Method and apparatus for monitoring and enhancing on-chip microprocessor reliability

• US 20060080062A1
• Filed: 10/08/2004
• Published: 04/13/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Rivers, Jude A., Bose, Pradip, Srinivasan, Jayanth
• Granted Patent: US 7,454,316 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/186
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/008 Reliability or availability analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/07 Responding to the occurrence of a fault, e.g. fault tolerance

Abstract

A system and method for projecting reliability to manage system functions includes an activity module which determines activity in the system. A reliability module interacts with the activity module to determine a reliability measurement for the module in real-time based upon the activity and measured operational quantities of the system. A management module manages actions of the system based upon the reliability measurement input from the reliability module. This may be to provide corrective action, to reallocate resources, increase reliability of the module, etc.

Claims

1. A system for projecting reliability to manage system functions, comprising:

an activity module which determines activity in the system;

a reliability module interacting with the activity module to determine a reliability measurement for the module in real-time based upon the activity and measured operational quantities of the system; and

a management module which manages actions of the system based upon the reliability measurement input from the reliability module.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the activity of the system includes measurement of activity determined by an instruction per cycle analysis.

3. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the measurement of activity is determined by counts on counters provided in the system.

4. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the activity of the system includes at least one of temperature, power, frequency measurements and energy estimates.

5. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the system includes a chip and the reliability module is integrated in the chip.

6. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the system includes a chip and the management module is integrated in the chip.

7. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the system further includes an operating system for monitoring workload and the reliability module includes a software module to determine the reliability measurement off-module.

8. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the reliability measurement includes a mean time to failure value for the entire system.

9. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the system includes a plurality of regions wherein the reliability measurement includes a mean time to failure value for each region.

10. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the management module compares the reliability measurement of a current period with a threshold and takes action to increase or reduce operating conditions to adjust the reliability measurement in a subsequent period.

11. The system as recited in claim 10, wherein the action to increase or reduce operating conditions includes one of adjusting a clock rate, reallocating resources, adjusting current or voltage.

12. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the management module compares the reliability measurement of a current period with a reliability measurement of a previous period and takes action to increase or reduce operating conditions to adjust the reliability measurement in a subsequent period.

13. The system as recited in claim 12, wherein the action to increase or reduce operating conditions includes one of adjusting a clock rate, reallocating resources, adjusting current or voltage.

18. The integrated circuit as recited in claim 1, wherein the management module employs the reliability measurement of a current period to take action to increase or reduce operating conditions to adjust the reliability measurement in a subsequent period.

19. The system as recited in claim 18, wherein the action to increase or reduce operating conditions includes one of adjusting a clock rate, reallocating resources, adjusting current or voltage.

14. An integrated circuit having a reliability management system integrated therein, comprising:

an activity module which determines activity of the integrated circuit;

a reliability module interacting with the activity module to determine a reliability measurement for the module in real-time based upon the activity and measured operational quantities of the integrated circuit; and

a management module which manages actions of the integrated circuit based upon the reliability measurement input from the reliability module.

15. The integrated circuit as recited in claim 14, wherein the integrated circuit includes a chip and the reliability module is integrated in the chip.

16. The integrated circuit as recited in claim 14, wherein the integrated circuit includes a chip and the management module is integrated in the chip.

17. The integrated circuit as recited in claim 14, wherein the reliability measurement includes a mean time to failure value.

20. A method for monitoring a module based upon projected reliability, comprising the steps of:

determining a reliability projection by performing reliability evaluations based upon measured operating physical characteristics of the module;

comparing the reliability projection to a threshold to determine if an action is needed; and

in accordance with the comparing step, adjusting operating conditions.

21. The method as recited in claim 20, wherein the step of determining includes determining one or more of power, temperature, frequency and performance of the module as measurements of the physical characteristics.

22. The method. as recited in claim 21, wherein the step of comparing includes comparing the reliability projection to a previously determined reliability projection to determine if an action is needed.

23. The method as recited in claim 20, wherein the measured operating physical characteristics are measured using an instruction per cycle analysis.

24. The method as recited in claim 20, wherein the measured operating physical characteristics are measured by providing counter devices to measure module activity.

25. The method as recited in claim 20, further comprising the steps of:

dividing the module into regions; and

determining reliability projections in each region.

26. The method as recited in claim 25, wherein the step of comparing includes comparing the reliability projection for each region to a threshold of that region to determine if an action is needed in that region.

27. The method as recited in claim 26, wherein the step of adjusting operating conditions includes adjusting operating conditions in that region.

28. The method as recited in claim 20, wherein the step of adjusting operating conditions includes adjusting at least one of power, temperature, frequency, temperature, and instructions per cycle on the module.

29. The method as recited in claim 20, further comprising the step of providing sensors on the module to make measurements.

30. The method as recited in claim 20, further comprising the step of providing a reliability module on-module to calculate the reliability projection.

31. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for monitoring a module based upon projected reliability, the method steps comprising:

determining a reliability projection by performing reliability evaluations based upon measured operating physical characteristics of the module;

comparing the reliability projection to a threshold to determine if an action is needed; and

in accordance with the comparing step, adjusting operating conditions.