ECC-on-SIMM test challenges

Author

Dell, T.J.

Author_Institution

IBM Corp. Microelectron. Div, Essex Junction, VT

fYear

34608

Firstpage

511

Lastpage

515

Abstract

The typical personal computer of today is used more and more to perform functions and run application programs that are critical to a business´s success. One of the biggest problems that inhibits productivity in this environment Is the effect of a lock-up, crash or parity error caused by cosmic-ray radiation-induced soft errors in the DRAM chips. IBM has announced a family of plug-compatible, retrofittable SIMMs with built-in ECC to provide a solution to this problem. This paper addresses the challenges associated with the full functional test of a SIMM with on-board ECC using a very test-unfriendly industry-standard memory module interface

Keywords

DRAM chips; IBM computers; error correction codes; fault diagnosis; radiation hardening (electronics); standards; DRAM chips; ECC; IBM; built-in ECC; cosmic-ray radiation-induced soft errors; crash; error correction code; functional test; industry-standard memory module interface; lock-up; on-board ECC; parity error; personal computer; plug-compatible retrofittable SIMM; productivity; run application programs; single inline memory module; Application specific integrated circuits; Circuit testing; Control systems; Glass manufacturing; Logic testing; Performance evaluation; Protection; Random access memory; Soldering; System testing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Test Conference, 1994. Proceedings., International

Conference_Location

Washington, DC

ISSN

1089-3539

Print_ISBN

0-7803-2103-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/TEST.1994.527993

Filename

527993