Robust Error Detecting Codes for Multilevel Memories

Robust codes are nonlinear error detecting codes that detect any additive error with nonzero probability. Robust codes can be used to protect hardware systems, such as memory arrays, from maliciously injected faults. Known robust codes are designed for q-ary alphabets where q is a power of a prime. In multilevel memories, the number of states is determined by physical characteristics of the circuit and implementation considerations, thus q is not necessarily a prime number. This paper presents a class of robust codes for such cases. The codes are built upon codes of smaller alphabets. As such their computational complexity is relatively small, and hence, they can be easily embedded in hardware systems.