Leveraging chip variability
First Claim
1. A chip comprising:
- a region-specific error profile configured to indicate reliability traits of respective regions of the chip according to a given operating parameter value, the region-specific error profile configured to provide reliability traits of a given region as a function of respective different values of the operating parameter value;
the region-specific error profile further configured to obtain first indications of respective reliabilities of the regions according to a first target operating parameter value and to obtain second indications of respective reliabilities of the regions according to a second target operating parameter value; and
a first set of the regions selected based on the first indications of the respective reliabilities, and a second set of the regions selected based on the second indications of the respective reliabilities; and
the first and second sets of selected regions being made available or unavailable based on the selection thereof.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Embodiments are described that leverage variability of a chip. Different areas of a chip vary in terms of reliability under a same operating condition. The variability may be captured by measuring errors over different areas of the chip. A physical factor that affects or controls the likelihood of an error on the chip can be varied. For example, the voltage supplied to a chip may be provided at different levels. At each level of the physical factor, the chip is tested for errors within the regions. Some indication of the error statistics for the regions is stored and then used to adjust power used by the chip, to adjust reliability behavior of the chip, to allow applications to control how the chip is used, to compute a signature uniquely identifying the chip, etc.
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Citations
13 Claims
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1. A chip comprising:
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a region-specific error profile configured to indicate reliability traits of respective regions of the chip according to a given operating parameter value, the region-specific error profile configured to provide reliability traits of a given region as a function of respective different values of the operating parameter value; the region-specific error profile further configured to obtain first indications of respective reliabilities of the regions according to a first target operating parameter value and to obtain second indications of respective reliabilities of the regions according to a second target operating parameter value; and a first set of the regions selected based on the first indications of the respective reliabilities, and a second set of the regions selected based on the second indications of the respective reliabilities; and the first and second sets of selected regions being made available or unavailable based on the selection thereof. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. An apparatus comprising:
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a chip; a region-specific error profile stored by the apparatus, the region-specific error profile, when the apparatus is operating, configured to indicate reliabilities of respective regions of the chip; a memory controller that, when the apparatus is operating, is configured to obtain, from the region-specific error profile, indications of the respective regions, the indications corresponding to respective reliabilities of the regions; and the memory controller, when the apparatus is operating, able to allocate memory from the regions according to the obtained indications of the respective regions, wherein the memory controller is configured to allocate memory according to target values of an operating factor to the region-specific error profile, the operating factor comprising a variable physical property of the chip, and wherein the memory controller is further configured to; provide a first target value to the region-specific error profile and based on a correspondingly returned first set of indications of the regions perform a first region adjustment comprising adjusting which of the regions are available to from an operating system for storing data; and provide a second target value to the region-specific error profile and based on a correspondingly returned second set of indications of the regions perform a second region adjustment comprising further adjusting which of the regions are available from the operating system for storing data. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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Specification