WHICH CONCURRENT ERROR DETECTION SCHEME TO CHOOSE?

Concurrent error detection (CED) techniques (based onhardware duplication, parity codes, etc.) are widely used toenhance system dependability. All CED techniquesintroduce some form of redundancy. Redundant systems aresubject to common-mode failures (CMFs). While most ofthe studies of CED techniques focus on area overhead, fewanalyze the CMF vulnerability of these techniques. In thispaper, for the first time, we present simulation results toquantitatively compare various CED schemes based ontheir area overhead and the protection (data integrity) theyprovide against multiple failures and CMFs. Our resultsindicate that, for the simulated combinational logiccircuits, although diverse duplex systems (with twodifferent implementations of the same logic function)sometimes have marginally higher area overhead, theyprovide significant protection against multiple failures andCMFs compared to other CED techniques like parityprediction.