Feasibility Analysis and Design of a Fault Tolerant Computing System: A TMR Microprocessor System Design of 64-Bit Cots Microprocessors

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze and determine the feasibility of implementing a fault tolerant computing system that is able to function in the presence of radiation induced Single Event Upsets (SEU) by using the Triple Modular Redundancy (TMR) technique with 64-bit Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) microprocessors. Due to the radiation environment in space, electronic devices must be designed to tolerate the radiation effects. While there are radiation-hardened devices that can tolerate radiation effects, they offer lower performance and higher cost than COTS devices. On the other hand, COTS devices offer lower cost, orders of magnitude higher performance, shorter design time and better software availability and compatibility. However, COTS devices are susceptible to the radiation effects. In order to use COTS devices in space environment, a fault tolerance technique such as TMR needs to be implemented. This thesis presents the design and analysis of a TMR 64-bit COTS microprocessor implementation. The system incorporates three 64-bit microprocessors, the memory system including SRAM and PROM memory modules and the programmable logic devices that are used to implement the IMR technique. The validity of the design is verified by the timing analysis conducted on read and write operations.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2001
Accession Number
ADA390948

Entities

People

  • Huseyin B. Eken

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Bipolar Junction Transistors
  • Charged Particles
  • Computer Programming
  • Computers
  • Detectors
  • Electronic Equipment
  • Environment
  • Fault Tolerance
  • Fault Tolerant Computing
  • Field Programmable Gate Arrays
  • Instruction Set Architecture
  • Logic Devices
  • Radiation
  • Radiation Effects
  • Reliability
  • Semiconductors
  • Space Environments

Fields of Study

  • Engineering
  • Physics

Readers

  • Integrated Circuit Design and Technology.
  • Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Technology.

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics
  • Microelectronics - Microelectromechanical Systems
  • Space