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This paper presents a new write latency reduction scheme for a Phase Change Memory (PCM) made of Multi-Level Cells (MLCs). This scheme improves over an existing scheme found in the technical literature and known as CABS. The proposed scheme is based on the utilization of a new coding arrangement for the selection of candidate codewords. The code relies on the two-step feature found in the write operation of a MLC PCM and avoids the symbol that incurs in the largest latency at a higher rate than CABS. A detailed simulation based evaluation and comparison are also pursued; the proposed scheme accomplishes improvements in write latency (for parallel writing) as well as coding rate (16/17 for the proposed scheme versus 16/18 for CABS for 16 symbols or 32-bit word). As the proposed scheme utilizes novel selection criteria for the candidates, the design of the required circuitry (encoder and decoder) has also been changed with respect to CABS; in terms of hardware, the areas of the encoder and decoder for the proposed scheme are reduced by 73 and 56 percent respectively compared with CABS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses at coding-level the challenge of providing a write latency reduction with either endurance enhancement and/or error control for a phase change memory (PCM) system. Endurance enhancement is assessed by considering the skewed write operations among the cells of a PCM system, i.e., when the maximal number of cell write operations is smaller, then the coding scheme achieves a better endurance, because the access of the memory cells in the system is more uniform (less skewed). As a first contribution, simulation of different industrial benchmarks shows that for realistic code rates (such as at k/n = 4/5), the write time speed-up (WTS) code not only reduces the write latency as previously reported, but it also reduces the skewed (nonuniform) use of PCM cells. This occurs because the WTS code uses as many cells as possible to reduce the number of SET operations in a PCM cell. Then, error control is considered. An encoding/decoding scheme that is compatible with a write latency reduction code, such as WTS, is proposed. For compatibility with the write latency reduction, a partition-based error control code (ECC) must be used. Also, the ECCs employed in these cases are systematic. The original information always appears in the codeword without modification. Evaluation by simulation shows that also in this case, the maximal number of write operations of the WTS code is smaller. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Processing at the nanometric scales presents unique challenges that may require new computational paradigms such as approximate computing. In this paper a novel approach to memory protection using an unequal protection code (UEP) is proposed; this approach is in synergy with approximate (or inexact) computing. Multi-level burst error correcting UEP codes are analyzed. These codes improve over previously presented two-level burst error correcting UEP codes, because they utilize different conditions and criteria in the code partitions and decoder construction. An analysis by which multiple partitions can be selected to reduce the expected error magnitude, is provided. The area and power consumption of the parallel decoders closely depend on the desired code function. Simulation shows that the area and power consumption of the parallel error pattern generator are proportional to the partition length; the gate depth however is not strongly related to the partition length. The results of this manuscript confirm that the proposed multi-level burst error correcting UEP codes reduce the hardware overhead with no significant degradation in storage protection as potential storage application for approximate computing systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This manuscript proposes three classes of codes for error correction in a storage system in which the memory cells do not have the same number of levels, i.e., a multiscale storage. The proposed codes are single multiscale-symbol error correction (SMSEC) codes and are capable of correcting any errors occurring on a single memory cell, namely a column-deleted SMSEC code, an element-compacted SMSEC code and a product SMSEC code. In the proposed codes, the codewords are divided into two partitions, the elements on the first partition are over GF(2b 1), while those on the remaining partition are over GF(2b2). This paper also gives guidelines for selection among the three SMSEC codes to meet the desired hardware overhead in the parallel decoder for realistic parameters of the partition pair, such as (b1, b2) = (4,3), (4,2) and (3,2). Moreover it is shown that the best choice for a MSS system is the SMSEC code with the shortest check bit length; if the check bit lengths of at least two codes are equal, then the use of the element-compacted SMSEC code incurs in the smallest hardware overhead. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes a novel scheme for a low-power non-volatile (NV) memory that exploits a two-level arrangement for attaining single event/multiple bit upsets (SEU/MBU) tolerance. Low-power hardened NVSRAM cell designs are initially utilized at the first level; these designs increase the critical charge and decrease power consumption by providing a positive (virtual) ground level voltage. A soft error rate (SER) analysis is also pursued to confirm the findings of the critical charge-based analysis. Simulation of these cells shows that their operation has a very high SEU tolerance, the charges in the nodes of the circuits for non-volatile storage and gate leakage current reduction have very high values, thus ensuring that a SEU will highly unlike affect the correct functions. A novel memory scheme with the proposed NVSRAM cells is proposed for tolerating MBU; in this scheme, only the error detection circuitry is required, because error correction is provided by the non-volatile elements of the NVSRAM cells. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme is very efficient in terms of delay and number of transistors (as measure of complexity). Moreover, the very high critical charge of some of the proposed cell designs reduces the number of MBU appearing as errors at the outputs of the memory, thus further reducing the error detection hardware required by the proposed scheme. An extensive evaluation and comparison of different schemes are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel construction scheme for nonbinary single-error correcting (SEC) codes that yields high-speed parallel decoding. The proposed scheme utilizes two methods, namely, Improved and Reordered; these methods can be also combined. Both of these methods reduce the number of 1's in the parity-check matrix (H-matrix) by reducing the 1's in every row vector. This results in a reduction in the gate depth in the syndrome generator, thus achieving a shorter delay time for parallel decoding. In the proposed Improved method, for a single b-bit byte (i.e., \mbox{2}^{b}-ary symbol) error correcting code, the submatrix of the H-matrix corresponding to every b$-bit byte is multiplied with a regular matrix. The so-called improved submatrix is generated using a heuristic (greedy) algorithm. The proposed Reordered method selects the correct $b$-bit bytes for deletion when shortening is performed. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme accomplishes a faster parallel decoding time than existing schemes. Furthermore, the proposed scheme is applicable to any class of linear SEC codes, whereas existing schemes are applicable only to specific codes. Extensive simulation results are provided to substantiate the viability of the proposed codes for faster parallel decoding (albeit incurring for most cases in modest increases of area and power dissipation due to additional circuitry). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Approximate (or inexact) computing is an attractive paradigm for digital processing at nanometric scales for applications in which imprecision in computation can be tolerated for improvements in other computational figures of merit, such as power consumption, circuit complexity and delay. The same principles of approximate computing are investigated in this manuscript for storage protection using an unequal protection code (UEP). In the proposed UEP code, the codeword is divided into two partitions; these partitions have different error protection functions. This paper presents a new class of two-level burst error correcting UEP codes and its parallel decoder. The proposed code is more efficient than an existing code in term of code rate, area and power consumption for the parallel decoder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This manuscript proposes non-binary orthogonal Latin square (OLS) codes that are amenable to a multilevel phase change memory (PCM). This is based on the property that the proposed (n symbols, k symbols) t-symbol error correcting code uses the same H matrix as an (n bits, k bits) binary t-bit error correcting OLS code. The new codes are shown to have a shorter check bit length and better probability in encoding/decoding than conventional binary OLS codes. Extensive results are provided for assessment and comparison. The proposed codes are also shown to be always better than the matrix codes, i.e. independently of the metric and the parameters employed in the comparison. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel high-speed Reed–Solomon (RS) decoder. The proposed decoder corrects in parallel adjacent and single-symbol errors; moreover, it serially corrects multiple-symbol errors other than adjacent errors. Its operation is based on a novel scheme that extends an existing binary BCH decoder such that a nonbinary RS code can be targeted. The proposed scheme, however, differs from previous schemes in the algorithm and construction of the parallel decoder; the proposed decoder is efficient for multilevel memory systems such as those utilizing phase change memory devices. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme requires a significantly smaller area and lower power than a traditional fully parallelized RS decoder capable of correcting any double-symbol errors in parallel. Furthermore, it is also shown that it requires a smaller area than a parallel error correction scheme using a nonbinary double-error-correcting orthogonal Latin square code. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Energy consumption is a major concern in nanoscale CMOS ICs; the power-Off operational mode and low-voltage circuits have been proposed to alleviate energy dissipation. Static random access memories (SRAMs) are widely used in today's chips; nonvolatile SRAMs (NVSRAMs) have been proposed to preserve data, while providing fast power- On/Off speeds. Nonvolatile operation is usually accomplished by the use of a resistive RAM circuit (hence referred to as RRAM); the utilization of a RRAM with an SRAMs not only enables chips to achieve low energy consumption for nonvolatile operation, but it also permits to restore data when a restore on power-up is performed (this operation is also commonly referred to as “Instant-on”). This paper presents a novel NVSRAM circuit for “Instant-on” operation and evaluates its performance at nanometric feature sizes. The proposed memory cell consists of a SRAM core (in this case, a 6T cell) and an oxide resistive RRAM circuit (1T1R), thus making a 7T1R scheme. The proposed cell offers better nonvolatile performance (in terms of operations such as “Store,” “Power-down,” and “Restore”) when compared with existing nonvolatile cells. The scenario of multiple-context configuration is also analyzed. Figures of merit such as energy, operational delay, and area are also substantially improved, making the proposed design a better scheme for “Instant-on” operation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a novel high-speed BCH decoder that corrects double-adjacent and single-bit errors in parallel and serially corrects multiple-bit errors other than double-adjacent errors. Its operation is based on extending an existing parallel BCH decoder that can only correct single-bit errors and serially corrects double-adjacent errors at low speed. The proposed decoder is constructed by a novel design and is suitable for nanoscale memory systems, in which multiple-bit errors occur at a probability comparable to single-bit errors and double-adjacent errors occur at a higher probability (nearly two orders of magnitude) than other multiple-bit errors. Extensive simulation results are reported. Compared with the existing scheme, the area and delay time of the proposed decoder are on average 11% and 6% higher, but its power consumption is reduced by 9% on average. This paper also shows that the area, delay, and power overheads incurred by the proposed scheme are significantly lower than traditional fully parallelized BCH decoders capable of correcting any double-bit errors in parallel. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a concurrent error detection (CED) scheme for orthogonal Latin square (OLS) parallel decoders. Different from a CED scheme found in the technical literature that protects only the syndrome generator, the proposed CED scheme protects the whole OLS decoder for single stuck-at faults. This paper presents the detailed design and analysis of the proposed CED scheme and shows that it is strongly fault secured for single stuck-at faults. Extensive simulation results are also provided; different figures of merit such as area, power dissipation, gate depth, and coverage are assessed. It is shown that the proposed decoder designs for ( n, k) t-bit error correcting OLS codes (k = \16 \cdots 256; t = \2 \cdots \5) have reasonable overhead; for example, the average area overhead of the proposed CED is 35.5 (23.6) % compared with an OLS decoder with no CED (i.e., the previously reported CED scheme). However, the most significant advantage of the proposed scheme is that it achieves 100% fault coverage for the whole CED circuit, thus providing a very efficient and fully fault-tolerant implementation. The proposed CED is applicable to both binary and nonbinary OLS codes; the CED for a nonbinary OLS decoder achieves comparable or better results than a binary OLS decoder. Moreover, simulation shows that the proposed CED scheme is better than double modular redundancy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a delay measurement technique using signature analysis, and a scan design for the proposed delay measurement technique to detect small-delay defects. The proposed measurement technique measures the delay of the explicitly sensitized paths with the resolution of the on-chip variable clock generator. The proposed scan design realizes complete on-chip delay measurement in short measurement time using the proposed delay measurement technique and extra latches for storing the test vectors. The evaluation with Rohm 0.18-\mum process shows that the measurement time is 67.8% reduced compared with that of the delay measurement with standard scan design on average. The area overhead is 23.4% larger than that of the delay measurement architecture using standard scan design, and the difference of the area overhead between enhanced scan design and the proposed method is 7.4% on average. The data volume is 2.2 times of that of test set for normal testing on average. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent high-density VLSIs, soft errors, particularly single event upsets (SEUs), frequently occur during system operation. In addition, the occurrence of delay faults caused by manufacturing defects is a significant problem. Thus, SEU tolerant design and delay fault testing are of increasing significance. This paper presents two types of SEU tolerant flip-flops (FFs). The proposed FFs tolerate SEUs caused by particles striking feedback loops in the FFs. Moreover, the proposed FFs allow enhanced scan delay fault testing. The proposed FFs are master-slave FFs, and the slave latches are constructed by modifying existing SEU tolerant latches, namely, SEH latches. The two proposed FFs tolerate particles with charges of 370 fC and of 369 fC or lower, whereas an existing SEU tolerant enhanced scan FF, called an ESFF-SEC, tolerates those of 431 fC or lower. Furthermore, the areas of the proposed FFs are 23.1% and 20.5% smaller than that of the ESFF-SEC. The CK-Q delay times are 44.4% and 41.1% shorter than that of the ESFF-SEC. Moreover, the average power consumptions of the proposed FFs during system operations are 55.6% and 53.3% lower than that of the ESFF-SEC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]