Crosstalk- and SEU-aware networks on chips

This article proposes the use of mixed hardware-software solutions to simultaneously address crosstalk faults and single-event upsets in on-chip networks. After analyzing the susceptibility of routers to these faults, the authors propose a software-based solution to deal with SEUs. But they show that the effect of crosstalk faults can be corrected only through hardware-based solutions. The authors then discuss four approaches that combine the use of hardware and software mitigation techniques to simultaneously deal with SEU and crosstalk effects in NoC routers. Experimental results show that the mixed hardware-software strategy is a cost-effective solution, even in high soft-error-rate environments. © 2007 IEEE.