An SFS Berger check prediction ALU and its application to self-checking processor designs

Abstract

A strongly fault secure (SFS) ALU design based on the Berger check prediction (BCP) technique is presented. The fault and error models of a large class of VLSI ALU designs are discussed. The proposed design is proved to be fault-secure and self-testing with respect to any single fault in the ALU part. The proposed BCP ALU is proved to be SFS with any design of BCP circuit. Consequently, a self-checking processor whose data path is encoded entirely in a Berger code can be achieved. An efficient self-checking processor can then be designed. >