The single event upset characteristics of the 486-DX4 microprocessor

Author

Kouba, Coy K. ; Choi, Gwan

Author_Institution

Avionic Syst. Div., NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, USA

fYear

1997

fDate

35635

Firstpage

48

Lastpage

52

Abstract

This paper describes the development of an experimental radiation testing environment to investigate the single event effect (SEE) susceptibility of the 486-DX4 microprocessor. The goal of this work was to experimentally characterize the single event effects of the 486-DX4 microprocessor using a cyclotron facility as the fault-injection source. Three different heavy ions were used to provide different linear energy transfer rates, and a total of six microprocessor parts were tested from two different commercial vendors. A consistent set of error modes were identified and the upset cross-sections were calculated. Results show a distinct difference in on-chip cache susceptibility, as well as a marked difference in vendor performance

Keywords

automatic test equipment; computer testing; errors; integrated circuit testing; ion beam effects; microprocessor chips; 486-DX4 microprocessor; SEE susceptibility; cyclotron facility; error modes; experimental radiation testing environment; fault-injection source; heavy ions; linear energy transfer rates; onchip cache susceptibility; single event effect susceptibility; single event upset characteristics; upset cross-sections; Aerospace electronics; Cyclotrons; Hardware; Logic testing; Microprocessors; NASA; Single event upset; Sockets; Space stations; System testing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Radiation Effects Data Workshop, 1997 IEEE

Conference_Location

Snowmass Village, CO

Print_ISBN

0-7803-4061-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/REDW.1997.629797

Filename

629797