Adapting to intermittent faults in multicore systems

Abstract

Future multicore processors will be more susceptible to a variety of hardware failures. In particular, intermittent faults, caused in part by manufacturing, thermal, and voltage variations, can cause bursts of frequent faults that last from several cycles to several seconds or more. Due to practical limitations of circuit techniques, cost-effective reliability will likely require the ability to temporarily suspend execution on a core during periods of intermittent faults.