NASA Technical Reports Server (NASA) · 2004 · 10 citations · 0 references
EngineeringComputer EngineeringComputer ScienceFault ToleranceFault-tolerant ComputingField-programmable Gate ArraysError DetectionFault DetectionFault ModelingFault Tolerance DesignFinite State Machine ModelingHardware Fault ToleranceFault Tolerance In Reconfigurable SystemsFault Tolerance MechanismsFault-tolerant ArchitectureFault-tolerant Reconfigurable SystemsSequential Logic DesignState EncodingState Machine DesignState Machine Models
State machines are commonly used to control sequential logic in FPGAs and ASKS. An errant state machine can cause considerable damage to the device it is controlling. For example in space applications, the FPGA might be controlling Pyros, which when fired at the wrong time will cause a mission failure. Even a well designed state machine can be subject to random errors us a result of SEUs from the radiation environment in space. There are various ways to encode the states of a state machine, and the type of encoding makes a large difference in the susceptibility of the state machine to radiation. In this paper we compare 4 methods of state machine encoding and find which method gives the best fault tolerance, as well as determining the resources needed for each method.