METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MONITORING AND ENHANCING ON-CHIP MICROPROCESSOR RELIABILITY

• US 20090048808A1
• Filed: 10/23/2008
• Published: 02/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Jayanth Srinivasan, Jude A. Rivers, Pradip Bose
• Original Assignee: Jayanth Srinivasan, Jude A. Rivers, Pradip Bose
• Inventors: Srinivasan, Jayanth, BOSE, PRADIP, Rivers, Jude A.
• Granted Patent: US 10,216,557 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.