Patent ID: 8091050
Filing Date: 2012-01-03
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method, in a data processing system, of performing soft error rate (SER) de-rating and failures in time (FIT) analysis of an integrated circuit (IC) design, comprising: integrating, by the data processing system, device-level and component-level soft error rate (SER) analysis mechanisms with micro-architecture level performance analysis tools during a concept phase of the IC design to thereby generate a SER analysis tool; generating, by the data processing system, a first SER profile for the IC design by applying the SER analysis tool to the IC design; obtaining, by the data processing system, at a later phase of the IC design, detailed information about SER vulnerabilities of logic and storage elements within the IC design; and refining, by the data processing system, the first SER profile at the later phase of the IC design based on the detailed information about SER vulnerabilities of the logic and storage elements within the IC design to thereby generate a second SER profile for the IC design, wherein modifications to the IC design are made at one or more phases of the IC design based on one of the first SER profile or the second SER profile, wherein generating the first SER profile comprises: creating a first analytical performance model of the IC design, wherein the first analytical performance model of the IC design is created at the concept phase of development of the IC design; and generating first SER projections and first FIT predictions for the IC design using the first analytical performance model of the IC design, wherein the first SER projections and first FIT predictions are generated by a SER workload modeling engine of the SER analysis tool, and wherein the SER workload modeling engine collects SER values for each of a plurality of components of the IC design based on average data residency statistics for the components of the IC design, and combines the SER values to generate a raw SER value for the IC design.