Detecting soft errors by a purely software approach: method, tools and experimental results

In this paper is described a software technique allowing the detection of soft errors occurring in processor-based digital architectures. The detection mechanism is based on a set of rules allowing the transformation of the target application into a new one, having the same functionalities but being able to identify bit-flips arising in memory areas as well as those perturbing the processor's internal registers. Experimental results issued from fault injection sessions and preliminary radiation test campaigns, performed on a complex DSP processor, provide objective figures about the efficiency of the proposed error detection technique.