Radiation Experiments on a 28nm Single-Chip Many-core Processor and SEU error-rate prediction

Vanessa Vargas (1, 2) , Pablo Ramos (1) , Vincent Ray (3) , Camille Jalier (3) , Renaud Stevens (3) , Benoît Dupont de Dinechin (3) , Maud Baylac (4) , Francesca Villa (5) , Solenne Rey (6) , Nacer-Eddine Zergainoh (1) , Jean-François Méhaut (7, 2) , Raoul Velazco (1)

1 TIMA - Techniques de l'Informatique et de la Microélectronique pour l'Architecture des systèmes intégrés
2 LIG - Laboratoire d'Informatique de Grenoble
3 Kalray
4 LPSC - Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie
5 LPICM - Laboratoire de physique des interfaces et des couches minces [Palaiseau]
6 Laboratoire de Physique et Métrologie des Oscillateurs
7 CORSE - Compiler Optimization and Run-time Systems

This work evaluates the SEE static and dynamic sensitivity of a single-chip many-core processor having implemented 16 compute clusters, each one with 16 processing cores. The SEU error-rate of an application implemented in the device is predicted by combining experimental results with those issued from fault injection campaigns applying the CEU (Code Emulating Upsets) approach. In addition, a comparison of the dynamic tests when processing-cores cache memories are enabled and disabled is presented. The experiments were validated through radiation ground testing performed with 14 MeV neutrons on the MPPA- 256 many-core processor manufactured in TSMC CMOS 28HP technology. An analysis of the erroneous results in processor GPRs was carried-out in order to explain their possible causes.

Domaines: Micro et nanotechnologies/Microélectronique

Vanessa Vargas, Pablo Ramos, Vincent Ray, Camille Jalier, Renaud Stevens, et al.. Radiation Experiments on a 28nm Single-Chip Many-core Processor and SEU error-rate prediction. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 2017, 64 (1), pp.483-490. ⟨10.1109/TNS.2016.2638081⟩. ⟨hal-01459823⟩