Integration with a Processor and Assessment of a Hardware Module for Detecting Application Hangs
Detection of faults that could lead to a process hang is an important aspect to consider when creating a fault tolerant system. This study offers a way to detect process hangs by examining a hardware module. Hardware modules provide error detection and security mechanisms. The hardware module that is explored in this paper is the Sequential Code Hang Detection module. This module is used to detect illegitimate loops in order to prevent process hangs. The Sequential Code Hang Detection module uses a CHECK instruction, which parameterizes the module to check for loops that range from 1 to the shortest execution path in the loop body. The Reliability and Security Engine is the hardware level framework that provides a uniform interface to the processor and its main pipeline, for modules such as the Sequential Code Hang Detection. Integrating the Sequential Code Hang Detection hardware module into the superscalar DLX processor addresses the problem of detecting process hangs due to illegitimate loops. The signals needed for this integration to occur were discovered. They are CU_CommitInstrA, CU_CommitInstrB, RB_InstrAddrReg, CU_CommitPointerA, and CU_CommitPointerB. Together, these signals indicate which instructions are ready to be committed and therefore checked by the Sequential Code Hang Detection module.
School:
St. Edward's University
Department:
Computer Science
Research Advisor:
Ravishankar Iyer
Department of Research Advisor:
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Year of Publication:
2004