Reliability of majority voting based VLSI fault-tolerant circuits

摘要

The effect of compensating module faults on the reliability ofnmajority voting based VLSI fault-tolerant circuits is investigated usingna fault injection simulation method. This simulation method facilitatesnconsideration of multiple faults in the replicated circuit modules asnwell as the majority voting circuits to account for the fact that, innVLSI implementations, the majority voting circuits are constructed fromncomponents of the same reliability as those used to construct thencircuit modules. From the fault injection simulation, a survivabilityndistribution is obtained which, when combined with an area overheadnexpression, leads to a more accurate reliability model for majoritynvoting based VLSI fault-tolerant circuits. The new model is extended tonfacilitate the calculation of reliability of fault-tolerant circuitsnwhich have sustained faults but continue to operate properly. Analysisnof the reliability model indicates that, for some circuits, thenreliability obtained with majority voting techniques is significantlyngreater than predicted by any previous model