Title :
Synchronizing Redundant Cores in a Dynamic DMR Multicore Architecture
Author :
Golander, Amit ; Weiss, Shlomo ; Ronen, Ronny
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng., Tel Aviv Univ., Tel Aviv
fDate :
6/1/2009 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
We introduce the difficulties in processing context switches, exceptions, and interrupts in DMR architectures. We propose ways to address these problems in a dynamic DMR (DDMR) architecture, providing methods that assure both cores detect the event, synchronize it to the same instruction, perform a secure context switch, run correct interrupt service routines, and avoid process termination. DDMR uses a time-division multiplexing (TDM) ring architecture to dynamically connect pairs of cores. We enhance this protocol to include the different message types required to handle interrupts and exceptions. We also propose a more efficient address-based, rather than TDM-based, ring architecture.
Keywords :
circuit reliability; microprocessor chips; multiprocessing systems; redundancy; time division multiplexing; TDM ring architecture; address-based ring architecture; chip multiprocessor reliability; dynamic DMR multicore architecture; event detection; time-division multiplexing; Context-aware services; Event detection; Hardware; Joining processes; Multicore processing; Operating systems; Protocols; Redundancy; Switches; Dual modular redundancy (DMR); reliability; ring;
Journal_Title :
Circuits and Systems II: Express Briefs, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TCSII.2009.2020930