Soft-Error Detection and Execution Observation for ARM Microprocessors

We present an intellectual property (IP) called a trace real-time analyzer to check processor errors under radiation (TRACER) designed to detect errors and observe the behavior of advanced RISC machines (ARM) processor architectures during execution in a non-intrusive manner using the information provided by the trace interface. The TRACER IP has a modular design that can be parameterized to fit a wide variety of ARM processor implementations and software applications. It supports both program and data tracing through the ARM trace embedded modules [instrumentation trace macrocell (ITM), program trace macrocell (PTM), and embedded trace macrocell (ETM)]. Experimental results with heavy ions have been conducted on two different processors with Cortex-A9 and Cortex-M7 architectures, respectively. The results demonstrate that the proposed IP can provide very high error detection capabilities.