Patent Application
20070300131
The primary storage portion 202 can be realized, for example, as a pair of cross-coupled inverters 208, 210. Similarly, the secondary storage portion can be implemented as a secondary pair of cross-coupled inverters 212, 214. The error detection portion 206 can be implemented, for example, as an XOR gate. As shown at terminals 216, 218, 220, 222 respectively, the inputs to the error detection portion can include the read data signal at port 216, the scan complimentary signal at port 218, the read data complimentary signal at port 220, and the rfl2 signal at terminal 222. These signals are available at locations 224, 226, 228, 230 respectively in the main diagram. Appropriate interconnections can be provided between such locations and the corresponding terminals of the error detection portion. It will be appreciated that a high logic level will appear at the ERR port 232 of error detection portion 206 when the bits stored in the primary storage portion 202 and the secondary storage portion 204 do not match. This may occur when a charged particle impacts the register file. Because of the relatively small parasitic capacitances now found in scaled-down CMOS circuitry, the individual storage portions 202, 204 may be more vulnerable to soft errors caused by such charged particles than formerly.
Also included in cell 200 are scan-in complimentary and scan-in true ports 234, 236; a-clock and b-clock ports 238, 240; and scan-out true and complimentary ports 242, 244. The exemplary cell shown in
Attention should now be given to
Circuit 300 can include a plurality of register file cells 314 located at the plurality of sites. Each register file cell can be associated with a corresponding one of the word line structures and a corresponding one of the bit line structures. Each register file cell can be, for example, of the kind described with regard to
The error detection portions of each cell 314 can be configured to output an error signal at the error port 352 upon occurrence of a soft error. These error ports can be coupled to an error detect dynamic OR circuit 354. The error detect dynamic OR circuit 354 can have (n+1)(m+1) inputs numbered 0 through ((n+1)(m+1)−1) and configured to obtain the error signals from the error detection portions, and to output a global error signal 356 upon obtaining an error signal from at least one of the register file cells 314. Further details regarding the error detect dynamic OR circuit 354 are provided in
As seen in
It should be noted that the exemplary embodiments depicted herein have included four read ports, four write ports, four word line structures, and four bit lines structures. This is simply for purposes of illustration; the principles described herein can be extended to any number of word line structures, any number of bit line structures, any number of cells, and any configuration of cells. Further, the specific logic elements shown herein are also illustrative, and equivalent structures obtaining similar results can also be employed.
Attention should now be given to
Attention should now be given to
The storing and detecting steps can be carried out during normal operation of the circuit. Optionally, the secondary storage portions can be employed as scan latches during test operation of the circuit, as at block 604. The test operation can include level sensitive scan design (LSSD) testing, or other suitable testing. Processing continues as needed at block 612.
It should be noted that as used herein, including the claims, when a second value is referred to as being a duplicate of a first value, this is to be understood in a logical sense. In the example shown herein, the same value (i.e., 0 for 0 and 1 for 1) is stored as the duplicate, and a disagreement between the two is found with an exclusive OR gate, indicating a soft error. However, one could instead store the duplicate as a complement, i.e., 1 as the duplicate of 0 and 0 as the duplicate of 1, and then detect a difference caused by a soft error when the two values unexpectedly agreed. In such a case, one could employ an exclusive NOR gate for error detection. One could also use a logical low value for an error signal in any of the schemes described; in this case, for the complementary duplicate scheme, one could use an exclusive OR gate for error detection.
Circuits including register file cells as described above can be part of the design for an integrated circuit chip. The chip design can be created, for example, in a graphical computer programming language, and stored in a computer storage medium (such as a disk, tape, physical hard drive, optical disc storage (e.g. CDROM, DVD), or virtual hard drive such as in a storage access network). If the designer does not fabricate chips or the photolithographic masks used to fabricate chips, the designer may transmit the resulting design by physical means (e.g., by providing a copy of the storage medium storing the design) or electronically (e.g., through the Internet) to such entities, directly or indirectly. The stored design can then be converted into an appropriate format such as, for example, Graphic Design System II (GDSII), for the fabrication of photolithographic masks, which typically include multiple copies of the chip design in question that are to be formed on a wafer. The photolithographic masks can be utilized to define areas of the wafer (and/or the layers thereon) to be etched or otherwise processed.
Resulting integrated circuit chips can be distributed by the fabricator in raw wafer form (that is, as a single wafer that has multiple unpackaged chips), as a bare die or in a packaged form. In the latter case, the chip can be mounted in a single chip package (such as a plastic carrier, with leads that are affixed to a mother board or other higher level carrier) or in a multi-chip package (such as a ceramic carrier that has either or both surface interconnections or buried interconnections). In any case, the chip may then be integrated with other chips, discrete circuit elements and/or other signal processing devices as part of either (a) an intermediate product, such as a mother board, or (b) an end product. The end product can be any product that includes integrated circuit chips, ranging from toys and other low-end applications to advanced computer products having a display, a keyboard or other input device, memory, and a central processor.
The register file cells, circuits and techniques of the present invention can be used in a variety of processors with a single or multiple cores. A processor can be a general purpose microprocessor, a general purpose central processor, a network processor, a graphic processor, a low power processor used in hand-held computing devices and mobile devices such as cell-phones, etc.
Although illustrative embodiments of the present invention have been described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to those precise embodiments, and that various other changes and modifications may be made by one skilled in the art without departing from the scope of spirit of the invention.
