AN 866: Mitigating and Debugging Single Event Upsets in Intel® Quartus® Prime Standard Edition

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ID 683869
Date 9/28/2021
Public
Document Table of Contents
Document Table of Contents x
1. Mitigating Single Event Upset 2. Debugging Single Event Upset Using the Fault Injection Debugger
1. Mitigating Single Event Upset x
1.1. Failure Rates 1.2. Mitigating SEU Effects in Embedded User RAM 1.3. Mitigating SEU Effects in Configuration RAM 1.4. Internal Scrubbing 1.5. SEU Recovery 1.6. Intel® Quartus® Prime Software SEU FIT Reports 1.7. Triple-Module Redundancy 1.8. Evaluating a System's Response to Functional Upsets 1.9. CRAM Error Detection Settings Reference 1.10. Document Revision History
1.2. Mitigating SEU Effects in Embedded User RAM x
1.2.1. Configuring RAM to Enable ECC
1.5. SEU Recovery x
1.5.1. Planning for SEU Recovery 1.5.2. Designating the Sensitivity of the Design Hierarchy 1.5.3. Advanced SEU Detection IP Core
1.5.2. Designating the Sensitivity of the Design Hierarchy x
1.5.2.1. Hierarchy Tagging 1.5.2.2. Using Partitions to Specify Logic Sensitivity ID
1.5.3. Advanced SEU Detection IP Core x
1.5.3.1. On-Chip Sensitivity Processor 1.5.3.2. External Sensitivity Processor
1.6. Intel® Quartus® Prime Software SEU FIT Reports x
1.6.1. SEU FIT Parameters Report 1.6.2. Projected SEU FIT by Component Usage Report 1.6.3. Enabling the Projected SEU FIT by Component Usage Report
1.6.2. Projected SEU FIT by Component Usage Report x
1.6.2.1. Component FIT Rates 1.6.2.2. Raw FIT 1.6.2.3. Utilized FIT 1.6.2.4. Mitigated FIT 1.6.2.5. Architectural Vulnerability Factor
1.6.2.3. Utilized FIT x
1.6.2.3.1. Comparing .smh Critical Bits Report to Utilized Bit Count 1.6.2.3.2. Considerations for Small Designs
2. Debugging Single Event Upset Using the Fault Injection Debugger x
2.1. Single Event Upset Mitigation 2.2. Hardware and Software Requirements 2.3. Using the Fault Injection Debugger and IP Core 2.4. Document Revision History
2.3. Using the Fault Injection Debugger and IP Core x
2.3.1. Instantiating the IP Core 2.3.2. Defining Fault Injection Areas 2.3.3. Using the Fault Injection Debugger 2.3.4. Command-Line Interface
2.3.1. Instantiating the IP Core x
2.3.1.1. About the EMR Unloader IP Core 2.3.1.2. About the Advanced SEU Detection IP Core
2.3.2. Defining Fault Injection Areas x
2.3.2.1. Performing Hierarchy Tagging 2.3.2.2. About SMH Files
2.3.3. Using the Fault Injection Debugger x
2.3.3.1. Configuring Your Device and the Fault Injection Debugger 2.3.3.2. Constraining Regions for Fault Injection 2.3.3.3. Specifying Error Types 2.3.3.4. Injecting Errors 2.3.3.5. Recording Errors 2.3.3.6. Clearing Injected Errors
2.3.4. Command-Line Interface x
2.3.4.1. Targeted Fault Injection Feature 2.3.4.2. Advanced Command-Line Options: ASD Regions and Error Type Weighting
2.3.4.1. Targeted Fault Injection Feature x
2.3.4.1.1. Specifying an Error List From the Command Line 2.3.4.1.2. Specifying an Error List From Prompt Mode 2.3.4.1.3. Determining CRAM Bit Locations
1. Mitigating Single Event Upset
2. Debugging Single Event Upset Using the Fault Injection Debugger

1.2. Mitigating SEU Effects in Embedded User RAM

Stratix® V, Stratix® IV, and Arria® V GZ FPGAs offer dedicated error correcting code (ECC) circuitry for embedded memory blocks. FPGA families that do not have dedicated ECC circuitry support ECC by implementing a soft IP core.

You can reduce the FIT rate for these memories to near zero by enabling the ECC encode/decode blocks. On ingress, the ECC encoder adds 8 bits of redundancy to a 32 bit word. On egress, the decoder converts the 40 bit word back to 32 bits. You use the redundant bits to detect and correct errors in the data resulting from SEU.

The existence of hard ECC and the strength of the ECC code (number of corrected and detected bits) varies by device family. Refer to the device handbook for details. If a device does not have a hard ECC block you can add ECC parity or use an ECC IP core.

The SRAM memories associated with processor subsystems, such as for SoC devices, contain dedicated hard ECC. You do not need to take action to protect these memories.

For more information about embedded memories and ECC, refer to the device documentation.


Section Content
Configuring RAM to Enable ECC

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