Patent Application
20060168494
One embodiment of the invention relates to communications and computer systems, especially networked routers, packet switching systems, computers and other devices that store and/or transport information; and more particularly, one embodiment relates to error protection for groups of data words by manipulating these data words to produce a resultant data word and an error correction code thereon for use in identifying a position of a bit error, and using an error detection code associated typically with each of the data words to identify whether or not a particular data word has a bit error.
Error-correcting and error-detecting codes are well-known. For example, ANDREW S. TANENBAUM,
Known storage techniques for protecting entries stored in random access memory (RAM) adds an error-correcting or error-detecting code to each memory entry. As part of a read operation of a memory location, the data portion and the error-correcting or error-detecting code is read, which is then used to detect a possible error and/or correct a discovered error in the data portion. If error correction is to be performed, then each entry requires a number of extra bits (the exact number of which depending on the size of the data and the error correction mechanism used), which in totality can consume a significant portion of the memory, or limit the size of a data value that can be stored in a memory entry (e.g., its physical number of bits minus the number of error correction bits). Desired are more efficient mechanisms for protecting data, which possibly may have the benefit of reducing the overall portion of the memory used to store error protection information.
Disclosed are, inter alia, methods, apparatus, data structures, computer-readable media, and mechanisms, for use in protecting groups of data words. One embodiment manipulates these data words to generate a resultant data word and an error correction code thereon for use in identifying a position of a bit error, with error detection codes used to identify which data word actually has the bit error. One embodiment retrieves a stored particular data word and its error detection code from memory or other storage. If an error is detected, the other data words in the group corresponding to the error correction code are acquired and are manipulated to produce a new resultant data word. The error correction code and the new resultant data word are used to identify the position of the bit error, with a corresponding bit position corrected in the particular data word.
The appended claims set forth the features of the invention with particularity. The invention, together with its advantages, may be best understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:
FIGS. 1A-C are block diagrams illustrating an mechanism of one embodiment for protecting a group of data words;
FIGS. 2A-C illustrate a few of an unlimited number ways in which protected data can be stored and/or transported in one embodiment;
Disclosed are, inter alia, methods, apparatus, data structures, computer-readable media, and mechanisms, for use in protecting groups of data words.
Embodiments described herein include various elements and limitations, with no one element or limitation contemplated as being a critical element or limitation. Each of the claims individually recites an aspect of the invention in its entirety. Moreover, some embodiments described may include, but are not limited to, inter alia, systems, networks, integrated circuit chips, embedded processors, ASICs, methods, and computer-readable media containing instructions. One or multiple systems, devices, components, etc. may comprise one or more embodiments, which may include some elements or limitations of a claim being performed by the same or different systems, devices, components, etc. The embodiments described hereinafter embody various aspects and configurations within the scope and spirit of the invention, with the figures illustrating exemplary and non-limiting configurations.
The term “system” is used generically herein to describe any number of components, elements, sub-systems, devices, packet switch elements, packet switches, routers, networks, computer and/or communication devices or mechanisms, or combinations of components thereof. The term “computer” is used generically herein to describe any number of computers, including, but not limited to personal computers, embedded processing elements and systems, control logic, ASICs, chips, workstations, mainframes, etc. The term “processing element” is used generically herein to describe any type of processing mechanism or device, such as a processor, ASIC, field programmable gate array, computer, etc. The term “device” is used generically herein to describe any type of mechanism, including a computer or system or component thereof. The terms “task” and “process” are used generically herein to describe any type of running program, including, but not limited to a computer process, task, thread, executing application, operating system, user process, device driver, native code, machine or other language, etc., and can be interactive and/or non-interactive, executing locally and/or remotely, executing in foreground and/or background, executing in the user and/or operating system address spaces, a routine of a library and/or standalone application, and is not limited to any particular memory partitioning technique. The steps, connections, and processing of signals and information illustrated in the figures, including, but not limited to any block and flow diagrams and message sequence charts, may typically be performed in the same or in a different serial or parallel ordering and/or by different components and/or processes, threads, etc., and/or over different connections and be combined with other functions in other embodiments, unless this disables the embodiment or a sequence is explicitly or implicitly required (e.g., for a sequence of read the value, process the value—the value must be obtained prior to processing it, although some of the associated processing may be performed prior to, concurrently with, and/or after the read operation). Furthermore, the term “identify” is used generically to describe any manner or mechanism for directly or indirectly ascertaining something, which may include, but is not limited to receiving, retrieving from memory, determining, defining, calculating, generating, etc.
Moreover, the terms “network” and “communications mechanism” are used generically herein to describe one or more networks, communications media or communications systems, including, but not limited to the Internet, private or public telephone, cellular, wireless, satellite, cable, local area, metropolitan area and/or wide area networks, a cable, electrical connection, bus, etc., and internal communications mechanisms such as message passing, interprocess communications, shared memory, etc. The term “message” is used generically herein to describe a piece of information which may or may not be, but is typically communicated via one or more communication mechanisms of any type.
The term “storage mechanism” includes any type of memory, storage device or other mechanism for maintaining instructions or data in any format. “Computer-readable medium” is an extensible term including any memory, storage device, storage mechanism, and other storage and signaling mechanisms including interfaces and devices such as network interface cards and buffers therein, as well as any communications devices and signals received and transmitted, and other current and evolving technologies that a computerized system can interpret, receive, and/or transmit. The term “memory” includes any random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), flash memory, integrated circuits, and/or other memory components or elements. The term “storage device” includes any solid state storage media, disk drives, diskettes, networked services, tape drives, and other storage devices. Memories and storage devices may store computer-executable instructions to be executed by a processing element and/or control logic, and data which is manipulated by a processing element and/or control logic. The term “data structure” is an extensible term referring to any data element, variable, data structure, database, and/or one or more organizational schemes that can be applied to data to facilitate interpreting the data or performing operations on it, such as, but not limited to memory locations or devices, sets, queues, trees, heaps, lists, linked lists, arrays, tables, pointers, etc. A data structure is typically maintained in a storage mechanism. The terms “pointer” and “link” are used generically herein to identify some mechanism for referencing or identifying another element, component, or other entity, and these may include, but are not limited to a reference to a memory or other storage mechanism or location therein, an index in a data structure, a value, etc.
The term “one embodiment” is used herein to reference a particular embodiment, wherein each reference to “one embodiment” may refer to a different embodiment, and the use of the term repeatedly herein in describing associated features, elements and/or limitations does not establish a cumulative set of associated features, elements and/or limitations that each and every embodiment must include, although an embodiment typically may include all these features, elements and/or limitations. In addition, the phrase “means for xxx” typically includes computer-readable medium or media containing computer-executable instructions for performing xxx.
In addition, the terms “first,” “second,” etc. are typically used herein to denote different units (e.g., a first element, a second element). The use of these terms herein does not necessarily connote an ordering such as one unit or event occurring or coming before another, but rather provides a mechanism to distinguish between particular units. Additionally, the use of a singular tense of a noun is non-limiting, with its use typically including one or more of the particular thing rather than just one (e.g., the use of the word “memory” typically refers to one or more memories without having to specify “memory or memories,” or “one or more memories” or “at least one memory,” etc.). Moreover, the phrases “based on x” and “in response to x” are used to indicate a minimum set of items x from which something is derived or caused, wherein “x” is extensible and does not necessarily describe a complete list of items on which the operation is performed, etc. Additionally, the phrase “coupled to” is used to indicate some level of direct or indirect connection between two elements or devices, with the coupling device or devices modifying or not modifying the coupled signal or communicated information. The term “subset” is used to indicate a group of all or less than all of the elements of a set. The term “subtree” is used to indicate all or less than all of a tree. Moreover, the term “or” is used herein to identify a selection of one or more, including all, of the conjunctive items. Additionally, the transitional term “comprising,” which is synonymous with “including,” “containing,” or “characterized by,” is inclusive or open-ended and does not exclude additional, unrecited elements or method steps.
Disclosed are, inter alia, methods, apparatus, data structures, computer-readable media, and mechanisms, for use in protecting groups of data words. One embodiment manipulates these data words to generate a resultant data word and an error correction code thereon for use in identifying a position of a bit error, with error detection codes used to identify which data word actually has the bit error. One embodiment retrieves a stored particular data word and its error detection code from memory or other storage. If an error is detected, the other data words in the group corresponding to the error correction code are acquired (e.g., retrieved from storage) and are manipulated to produce a new resultant data word. The error correction code and the new resultant data word are used to identify the position of the bit error, with a corresponding bit position corrected in the particular data word.
Thus, one embodiment does not require as much storage as would be needed if a full error correction code was stored in each data line for protecting its data word. Also, one embodiment, by using error detection to identify whether or not a data line includes an error, only requires that the other data line(s) containing the other portion(s) of the corresponding error correction code (or at least their error correction code portion(s)) need to be retrieved in response to a detected error (e.g., instead of reading all data lines with a portion of an error correction code, or at least their error correction code portions, every time one of these data lines is accessed—although all of these data lines, or at least their error correction code portions, are retrieved in one embodiment when one of these data lines is accessed).
One embodiment manipulates multiple data words to generate a resultant data word. An error correction code for the resultant data word is generated, with the error correction code including multiple error correction bits. Different subsets of the error correction bits are associated with at least two of the data words. For each particular data word, an error detection code is generated based on the particular data word and the associated subset of the error correction bits if any.
One embodiment transmits and/or stores the data words, the error correction code, and the error detection codes. After transmitting or storing, one embodiment: acquires the data, with this acquired data including a particular data word, its associated error detection code, and its the associated subset of the error correction bits if any; and performs an error detection operation on the acquired data. In one embodiment, in response to the error detection operation identifying an error condition, one embodiment performs an error correction operation on the acquired data. In one embodiment, this performing of the error correction operation includes generating a new resultant word based on the current values of the group of data words, identifying a bit position in the resultant data word to correct based on the resultant word and the error correction code, and correcting a corresponding bit position in the acquired data (e.g., the data word, the associated subset of the error correction bits, or the error detection code).
In one embodiment, storing of the data words, the error detection code, and the error detection codes includes: for each the data word, storing its value, its error detection code, and its associated subset of the multiple error correction bits if any in a same memory line in one or more memories. In one embodiment, manipulating the data words to generate the resultant data word includes exclusively-OR'ing bits of the data words. One embodiment includes means for performing each of these operations. One embodiment includes computer-readable media containing computer-executable instructions for performing each of these operations.
One embodiment performs an error detection check on a particular data word of a group of data words based on the particular data word and a particular error detection code. In response to an error condition being identified, data is manipulated to generate a resultant data word, with this data including the group of data words. An error correction operation is performed based on the resultant data word and on an associated predetermined error correction code to identify a bit position of an error. A bit in the particular data word corresponding to the bit position is corrected.
In one embodiment, each of the data words is included in a one of the data lines, and the lines include the error detection code and multiple error protection codes, with each of the data words associated with a different one of the multiple error detection codes. In one embodiment, different subsets of the error correction code are stored in different data lines. In one embodiment, each of the data words is included in the data lines which are stored in one or more memories, with each of the multiple data lines including one of the data words and one of the error detection codes; and the particular data word and the particular error detection code are retrieved from the one or more memories.
In one embodiment, the error correction code is maintained in a register independent of the one or more memories; and the error correction code is retrieved from the register. In one embodiment, different portions of the error correction code are included in different lines of the multiple data lines. In one embodiment, a particular data line includes the particular data word, the particular error detection code, and a particular portion of the different portions of the error correction code, with the different portions including the particular portion and remaining portions. In response to the error condition identified by the error detection check, the remaining portions of the error correction code are retrieved. In one embodiment, the data words include the particular data word and remaining data words; and in response to the error condition identified by the error detection check, the remaining data words are retrieved from the one or more memories. One embodiment includes means for performing each of these operations. One embodiment includes computer-readable media containing computer-executable instructions for performing each of these operations.
One embodiment includes error detection and error correction capabilities and storage. The embodiment is configured to retrieve a data word of a group of data words and its associated error detection code from the storage and to manipulate current values of the group of data words, to generate a resultant data word, and to perform an error correction operation based on the resultant data word and its associated predetermined error correction code to identify a bit position corresponding to an error condition, and to correct a bit in the data word corresponding to the error condition to produce a corrected data word.
In one embodiment, manipulating the current values to generate the resultant data word includes exclusively-OR'ing the current values. One embodiment is configured to retrieve the other data words of the group of data words from memory for use in the manipulate operation in response to identifying an error condition from the error correction operation. One embodiment is configured to retrieve the predetermined error correction code from the storage in response to the identifying the error condition. In one embodiment, the storage is configured to retrieve a particular data line based on a particular address, the particular data line including the data word, its the associated error detection code and a portion, but not all, of the predetermined error correction code.
One embodiment includes means for performing an error detection check on a particular data word of multiple data words based on the particular data word and a particular error detection code, means for manipulating data to generate a resultant data word in response to an error condition identified by the error detection check, the data including the multiple data words; means for performing an error correction operation based on the resultant data word and on an associated predetermined error correction code to identify a bit position of an error; and means for error correcting a bit in the particular data word corresponding to the bit position.
FIGS. 1A-C are block diagrams illustrating an mechanism of one embodiment for protecting a group of data words. As shown in
Illustrated in
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FIGS. 2A-C illustrate a few of an unlimited number ways in which protected data can be stored and/or transported in one embodiment. These are presented to illustrate the operation of a few embodiments of the invention, and to demonstrate the expansive scope embodiments. As would be apparent to one skilled in the art, many variations are possible and within the scope and spirit of the invention.
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Note, various error detection functions and error correction functions can be used by one embodiment in keeping with the scope and spirit of the invention. For example, shown in
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In one embodiment, component 400 includes a processing element 401 (e.g., a processor, customized logic, etc.), memory 402, storage devices 403, and an interface 404 for receiving and sending packets, items, and/or other information, which are typically coupled via one or more communications mechanisms 409 (shown as a bus for illustrative purposes.) Various embodiments of component 400 may include more or less elements. The operation of component 400 is typically controlled by processing element 401 using memory 402 and storage devices 403 to perform one or more scheduling tasks or processes. Memory 402 is one type of computer-readable medium, and typically comprises random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), flash memory, integrated circuits, and/or other memory components. Memory 402 typically stores computer-executable instructions to be executed by processing element 401 and/or data which is manipulated by processing element 401 for implementing functionality in accordance with the invention. Storage devices 403 are another type of computer-readable medium, and typically comprise solid state storage media, disk drives, diskettes, networked services, tape drives, and other storage devices. Storage devices 403 typically store computer-executable instructions to be executed by processing element 401 and/or data which is manipulated by processing element 401 for implementing functionality in accordance with the invention.
As shown, control 422 includes storage and data word manipulation functionality. An error correction code generation mechanism 424 is used to generate the error correction codes. A parity check and error correction mechanism 426 is used to generate parity codes and to corrected detected errors. Typically, the protected data lines including the protected data words are stored in storage 428. In one embodiment, the error detection and/or correction codes for a group of data words is stored in storage 428; while in one embodiment, the error detection and/or correction codes for a group of data words is stored in storage within control 422. In one embodiment, storage system 420 stores and retrieves data words 433 based on addresses 431 like a standard RAM, but also performs the data protection functionality.
In view of the many possible embodiments to which the principles of our invention may be applied, it will be appreciated that the embodiments and aspects thereof described herein with respect to the drawings/figures are only illustrative and should not be taken as limiting the scope of the invention. For example and as would be apparent to one skilled in the art, many of the process block operations can be re-ordered to be performed before, after, or substantially concurrent with other operations. Also, many different forms of data structures could be used in various embodiments. The invention as described herein contemplates all such embodiments as may come within the scope of the following claims and equivalents thereof.
