Microprocessor entomology: a taxonomy of design faults in COTS microprocessors

Author

Avizienis, Algirdas ; He, Yutao

Author_Institution

Dept. of Comput. Sci., California Univ., Los Angeles, CA, USA

fYear

1999

fDate

36465

Firstpage

3

Lastpage

23

Abstract

The rapid increase of the complexity of high-performance COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) microprocessors has led to continuing post-design discoveries of numerous design faults, called “errata” by the manufacturers. This paper presents a systematic framework, the Design Fault Taxonomy, for the study of such design faults. Based on the proposed methodology, an in-depth analysis of design faults uncovered in the Intel Pentium II microprocessor since its initial release is presented in detail. The results raise concerns about the use of such processors in high-confidence systems and point to potential solutions

Keywords

integrated circuit design; integrated circuit reliability; microprocessor chips; COTS microprocessors; Design Fault Taxonomy; Intel Pentium II microprocessor; circuit design faults; commercial off-the-shelf microprocessors; high-confidence systems; systematic framework; Computer science; Documentation; Error correction; Fault tolerance; Fault tolerant systems; Helium; Laboratories; Microprocessors; Microwave integrated circuits; Taxonomy;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Dependable Computing for Critical Applications 7, 1999

Conference_Location

San Jose, CA

Print_ISBN

0-7695-0284-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/DCFTS.1999.814287

Filename

814287