DeSyRe: on-Demand System Reliability

The DeSyRe project builds on-demand adaptive and reliable Systems-on-Chips (SoCs). As fabrication technology scales down, chips are becoming less reliable, thereby incurring increased power and performance costs for fault tolerance. To make matters worse, power density is becoming a significant limiting factor in SoC design, in general. In the face of such changes in the technological landscape, current solutions for fault tolerance are expected to introduce excessive overheads in future systems. Moreover, attempting to design and manufacture a totally defect and fault-free system, would impact heavily, even prohibitively, the design, manufacturing, and testing costs, as well as the system performance and power consumption. In this context, DeSyRe delivers a new generation of systems that are reliable by design at well-balanced power, performance, and design costs. In our attempt to reduce the overheads of fault-tolerance, only a small fraction of the chip is built to be fault-free. This fault-free part is then employed to manage the remaining fault-prone resources of the SoC. The DeSyRe framework is applied to two medical systems with high safety requirements (measured using the IEC 61508 functional safety standard) and tight power and performance constraints

Network-on-Chip

Addresses the Challenges Associated with System-on-Chip Integration Network-on-Chip: The Next Generation of System-on-Chip Integration examines the current issues restricting chip-on-chip communication efficiency, and explores Network-on-chip (NoC), a promising alternative that equips designers with the capability to produce a scalable, reusable, and high-performance communication backbone by allowing for the integration of a large number of cores on a single system-on-chip (SoC). This book provides a basic overview of topics associated with NoC-based design: communication infrastructure design, communication methodology, evaluation framework, and mapping of applications onto NoC. It details the design and evaluation of different proposed NoC structures, low-power techniques, signal integrity and reliability issues, application mapping, testing, and future trends. Utilizing examples of chips that have been implemented in industry and academia, this text presents the full architectural design of components verified through implementation in industrial CAD tools. It describes NoC research and developments, incorporates theoretical proofs strengthening the analysis procedures, and includes algorithms used in NoC design and synthesis. In addition, it considers other upcoming NoC issues, such as low-power NoC design, signal integrity issues, NoC testing, reconfiguration, synthesis, and 3-D NoC design. This text comprises 12 chapters and covers: The evolution of NoC from SoC—its research and developmental challenges NoC protocols, elaborating flow control, available network topologies, routing mechanisms, fault tolerance, quality-of-service support, and the design of network interfaces The router design strategies followed in NoCs The evaluation mechanism of NoC architectures The application mapping strategies followed in NoCs Low-power design techniques specifically followed in NoCs The signal integrity and reliability issues of NoC The details of NoC testing strategies reported so far The problem of synthesizing application-specific NoCs Reconfigurable NoC design issues Direction of future research and development in the field of NoC Network-on-Chip: The Next Generation of System-on-Chip Integration covers the basic topics, technology, and future trends relevant to NoC-based design, and can be used by engineers, students, and researchers and other industry professionals interested in computer architecture, embedded systems, and parallel/distributed systems

Introduction de mécanismes de tolérance aux pannes franches dans les architectures de processeur « many-core » à mémoire partagée cohérente

The always increasing performance demands of applications such as cryptography, scientific simulation, network packets dispatching, signal processing or even general-purpose computing has made of many-core architectures a necessary trend in the processor design. These architectures can have hundreds or thousands of processor cores, so as to provide important computational throughputs with a reasonable power consumption. However, their important transistor density makes many-core architectures more prone to hardware failures. There is an augmentation in the fabrication process variability, and in the stress factors of transistors, which impacts both the manufacturing yield and lifetime. A potential solution to this problem is the introduction of fault-tolerance mechanisms allowing the processor to function in a degraded mode despite the presence of defective internal components. We propose a complete in-the-field reconfiguration-based permanent failure recovery mechanism for shared-memory many-core processors. This mechanism is based on a firmware (stored in distributed on-chip read-only memories) executed at each hardware reset by the internal processor cores without any external intervention. It consists in distributed software procedures, which locate the faulty components (cores, memory banks, and network-on-chip routers), reconfigure the hardware architecture, and provide a description of the functional hardware infrastructure to the operating system. Our proposal is evaluated using a cycle-accurate SystemC virtual prototype of an existing many-core architecture. We evaluate both its latency, and its silicon cost.L'augmentation continue de la puissance de calcul requise par les applications telles que la cryptographie, la simulation, ou le traitement du signal a fait évoluer la structure interne des processeurs vers des architectures massivement parallèles (dites « many-core »). Ces architectures peuvent contenir des centaines, voire des milliers de cœurs afin de fournir une puissance de calcul importante avec une consommation énergétique raisonnable. Néanmoins, l'importante densité de transistors fait que ces architectures sont très susceptibles aux pannes matérielles. L'augmentation dans la variabilité du processus de fabrication, et dans les facteurs de stress des transistors, dégrade à la fois le rendement de fabrication, et leur durée de vie. Nous proposons donc un mécanisme complet de tolérance aux pannes franches, permettant les architectures « many-core » à mémoire partagée cohérente de fonctionner dans un mode dégradé. Ce mécanisme s'appuie sur un logiciel embarqué et distribué dans des mémoires sur puce (« firmware »), qui est exécuté par les cœurs à chaque démarrage du processeur. Ce logiciel implémente plusieurs algorithmes distribués permettant de localiser les composants défaillants (cœurs, bancs mémoires, et routeurs des réseaux sur puce), de reconfigurer l'architecture matérielle, et de fournir une cartographie de l'infrastructure matérielle fonctionnelle au système d'exploitation. Le mécanisme supporte aussi bien des défauts de fabrication, que des pannes de vieillissement après que la puce est en service dans l'équipement. Notre proposition est évaluée en utilisant un prototype virtuel précis au cycle d'une architecture « many-core » existante

Design and Validation of Network-on-Chip Architectures for the Next Generation of Multi-synchronous, Reliable, and Reconfigurable Embedded Systems

NETWORK-ON-CHIP (NoC) design is today at a crossroad. On one hand, the design principles to efficiently implement interconnection networks in the resource-constrained on-chip setting have stabilized. On the other hand, the requirements on embedded system design are far from stabilizing. Embedded systems are composed by assembling together heterogeneous components featuring differentiated operating speeds and ad-hoc counter measures must be adopted to bridge frequency domains. Moreover, an unmistakable trend toward enhanced reconfigurability is clearly underway due to the increasing complexity of applications. At the same time, the technology effect is manyfold since it provides unprecedented levels of system integration but it also brings new severe constraints to the forefront: power budget restrictions, overheating concerns, circuit delay and power variability, permanent fault, increased probability of transient faults. Supporting different degrees of reconfigurability and flexibility in the parallel hardware platform cannot be however achieved with the incremental evolution of current design techniques, but requires a disruptive approach and a major increase in complexity. In addition, new reliability challenges cannot be solved by using traditional fault tolerance techniques alone but the reliability approach must be also part of the overall reconfiguration methodology. In this thesis we take on the challenge of engineering a NoC architectures for the next generation systems and we provide design methods able to overcome the conventional way of implementing multi-synchronous, reliable and reconfigurable NoC. Our analysis is not only limited to research novel approaches to the specific challenges of the NoC architecture but we also co-design the solutions in a single integrated framework. Interdependencies between different NoC features are detected ahead of time and we finally avoid the engineering of highly optimized solutions to specific problems that however coexist inefficiently together in the final NoC architecture. To conclude, a silicon implementation by means of a testchip tape-out and a prototype on a FPGA board validate the feasibility and effectivenes

Architecting a One-to-many Traffic-Aware and Secure Millimeter-Wave Wireless Network-in-Package Interconnect for Multichip Systems

With the aggressive scaling of device geometries, the yield of complex Multi Core Single Chip(MCSC) systems with many cores will decrease due to the higher probability of manufacturing defects especially, in dies with a large area. Disintegration of large System-on-Chips(SoCs) into smaller chips called chiplets has shown to improve the yield and cost of complex systems. Therefore, platform-based computing modules such as embedded systems and micro-servers have already adopted Multi Core Multi Chip (MCMC) architectures overMCSC architectures. Due to the scaling of memory intensive parallel applications in such systems, data is more likely to be shared among various cores residing in different chips resulting in a significant increase in chip-to-chip traffic, especially one-to-many traffic. This one-to-many traffic is originated mainly to maintain cache-coherence between many cores residing in multiple chips. Besides, one-to-many traffics are also exploited by many parallel programming models, system-level synchronization mechanisms, and control signals. How-ever, state-of-the-art Network-on-Chip (NoC)-based wired interconnection architectures do not provide enough support as they handle such one-to-many traffic as multiple unicast trafficusing a multi-hop MCMC communication fabric. As a result, even a small portion of such one-to-many traffic can significantly reduce system performance as traditional NoC-basedinterconnect cannot mask the high latency and energy consumption caused by chip-to-chipwired I/Os. Moreover, with the increase in memory intensive applications and scaling of MCMC systems, traditional NoC-based wired interconnects fail to provide a scalable inter-connection solution required to support the increased cache-coherence and synchronization generated one-to-many traffic in future MCMC-based High-Performance Computing (HPC) nodes. Therefore, these computation and memory intensive MCMC systems need an energy-efficient, low latency, and scalable one-to-many (broadcast/multicast) traffic-aware interconnection infrastructure to ensure high-performance. Research in recent years has shown that Wireless Network-in-Package (WiNiP) architectures with CMOS compatible Millimeter-Wave (mm-wave) transceivers can provide a scalable, low latency, and energy-efficient interconnect solution for on and off-chip communication. In this dissertation, a one-to-many traffic-aware WiNiP interconnection architecture with a starvation-free hybrid Medium Access Control (MAC), an asymmetric topology, and a novel flow control has been proposed. The different components of the proposed architecture are individually one-to-many traffic-aware and as a system, they collaborate with each other to provide required support for one-to-many traffic communication in a MCMC environment. It has been shown that such interconnection architecture can reduce energy consumption and average packet latency by 46.96% and 47.08% respectively for MCMC systems. Despite providing performance enhancements, wireless channel, being an unguided medium, is vulnerable to various security attacks such as jamming induced Denial-of-Service (DoS), eavesdropping, and spoofing. Further, to minimize the time-to-market and design costs, modern SoCs often use Third Party IPs (3PIPs) from untrusted organizations. An adversary either at the foundry or at the 3PIP design house can introduce a malicious circuitry, to jeopardize an SoC. Such malicious circuitry is known as a Hardware Trojan (HT). An HTplanted in the WiNiP from a vulnerable design or manufacturing process can compromise a Wireless Interface (WI) to enable illegitimate transmission through the infected WI resulting in a potential DoS attack for other WIs in the MCMC system. Moreover, HTs can be used for various other malicious purposes, including battery exhaustion, functionality subversion, and information leakage. This information when leaked to a malicious external attackercan reveals important information regarding the application suites running on the system, thereby compromising the user profile. To address persistent jamming-based DoS attack in WiNiP, in this dissertation, a secure WiNiP interconnection architecture for MCMC systems has been proposed that re-uses the one-to-many traffic-aware MAC and existing Design for Testability (DFT) hardware along with Machine Learning (ML) approach. Furthermore, a novel Simulated Annealing (SA)-based routing obfuscation mechanism was also proposed toprotect against an HT-assisted novel traffic analysis attack. Simulation results show that,the ML classifiers can achieve an accuracy of 99.87% for DoS attack detection while SA-basedrouting obfuscation could reduce application detection accuracy to only 15% for HT-assistedtraffic analysis attack and hence, secure the WiNiP fabric from age-old and emerging attacks

AN INCLUSIVE TEST PATTERN GENERATOR USING DATA VOLUME COMPRESSION

Because the BIST power consumption can certainly exceed the utmost ratings when testing as fast as possible, scan patterns should be shifted in a programmable low speed, and just the final couple of cycles and also the capture cycle are applied at its peak frequency. Within this paper, we advise a PRPG for LP BIST applications. The suggested hybrid solution enables someone to efficiently combine test compression with logic BIST, where both techniques could work synergistically to provide top quality test. Therefore, it is a really attractive LP test plan that enables for buying and selling-off test coverage, pattern counts, and toggling rates in an exceedingly flexible manner. Particularly, several hybrid BIST schemes store deterministic top-up patterns around the tester inside a compressed form, after which make use of the existing BIST hardware to decompress these test patterns. The bottom is thus provided by  observe that chain 45 isn't incorporated because it features just one specified scan cell. A high probability of manufacturing confirmed logic value inside a purely pseudorandom fashion is really a rationale behind excluding from the base scan chains hosting just one specified bit. Just like conventional scan-based test, hybrid schemes, because of the high data activity connected with scan-based test operations, may consume a lot more power than the usual circuit under-test is built to function under. The generator mainly is aimed at lowering the switching activity during scan loading because of its preselected toggling (PRESTO) levels. LP PRPG can also be able to serving as a completely functional test data decompress or having the ability to control scan shift-in switching activity through the entire process of encoding

FPGA ARCHITECTURE AND VERIFICATION OF BUILT IN SELF-TEST (BIST) FOR 32-BIT ADDER/SUBTRACTER USING DE0-NANO FPGA AND ANALOG DISCOVERY 2 HARDWARE

The integrated circuit (IC) is an integral part of everyday modern technology, and its application is very attractive to hardware and software design engineers because of its versatility, integration, power consumption, cost, and board area reduction. IC is available in various types such as Field Programming Gate Array (FPGA), Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), System on Chip (SoC) architecture, Digital Signal Processing (DSP), microcontrollers (μC), and many more. With technology demand focused on faster, low power consumption, efficient IC application, design engineers are facing tremendous challenges in developing and testing integrated circuits that guaranty functionality, high fault coverage, and reliability as the transistor technology is shrinking to the point where manufacturing defects of ICs are affecting yield which associates with the increased cost of the part. The competitive IC market is pressuring manufactures of ICs to develop and market IC in a relatively quick turnaround which in return requires design and verification engineers to develop an integrated self-test structure that would ensure fault-free and the quality product is delivered on the market. 70-80% of IC design is spent on verification and testing to ensure high quality and reliability for the enduser. To test complex and sophisticated IC designs, the verification engineers must produce laborious and costly test fixtures which affect the cost of the part on the competitive market. To avoid increasing the part cost due to yield and test time to the end-user and to keep up with the competitive market many IC design engineers are deviating from complex external test fixture approach and are focusing on integrating Built-in Self-Test (BIST) or Design for Test (DFT) techniques onto IC’s which would reduce time to market but still guarantee high coverage for the product. Understanding the BIST, the architecture, as well as the application of IC, must be understood before developing IC. The architecture of FPGA is elaborated in this paper followed by several BIST techniques and applications of those BIST relative to FPGA, SoC, analog to digital (ADC), or digital to analog converters (DAC) that are integrated on IC. Paper is concluded with verification of BIST for the 32-bit adder/subtracter designed in Quartus II software using the Analog Discovery 2 module as stimulus and DE0-NANO FPGA board for verification

A RANDOM TEST PATTERN GENERATOR WITH ENHANCED FAULT COVERAGE

Particularly, several hybrid BIST schemes store deterministic top-up patterns around the tester inside a compressed form, after which make use of the existing BIST hardware to decompress these test patterns. Just like conventional scan-based test, hybrid schemes, because of the high data activity connected with scan-based test operations, may consume a lot more power than the usual circuit under-test is built to function under. Because the BIST power consumption can certainly exceed the utmost ratings when testing as fast as possible, scan patterns should be shifted in a programmable low speed, and just the final couple of cycles and also the capture cycle are applied at its peak frequency. Within this paper, we advise a PRPG for LP BIST applications. The suggested hybrid solution enables someone to efficiently combine test compression with logic BIST, where both techniques could work synergistically to provide top quality test. Therefore, it is a really attractive LP test plan that enables for buying and selling-off test coverage, pattern counts, and toggling rates in an exceedingly flexible manner. The generator mainly is aimed at lowering the switching activity during scan loading because of its preselected toggling (PRESTO) levels. LP PRPG can also be able to serving as a completely functional test data decompress or having the ability to control scan shift-in switching activity through the entire process of encoding. The bottom is thus provided by  observe that chain 45 isn't incorporated because it features just one specified scan cell. A high probability of manufacturing confirmed logic value inside a purely pseudorandom fashion is really a rationale behind excluding from the base scan chains hosting just one specified bit