ECC code mechanism for detecting stuck-at-wire failures

摘要

A method for detecting wire failures during transmission of a data message determines the number of 1's (or 0's) in the data portion (21) and the ECC code (22) of the data portion. This counted number (23) is then provided with ECC code (24). The data portion, its ECC, the counted number, and its ECC are transmitted to the destination. At the destination, the message is decoded, and the number of 1's in the received message is compared with the counted number; if there is a discrepancy, then a wire fault is signaled. The mechanism may also detect any number of faults provided the number of 0 to 1 transitions is not the same as the number of 1 to 0 transitions. The mechanism can be reconfigured to work with any transmission wire width. IMAGE