Scrubbing unit repositioning for fast error repair in FPGAs

Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are very successful platforms that rely on large configuration memories to store the circuit functions required by users. Faults affecting such memories are a major dependability threat for these devices, and the applicability of FPGAs on critical systems depends on efficient means to mitigate their effects. The main means to effectively remove such faults, namely configuration scrubbing, consists in rewriting the desired contents of this memory and suffers from high power consumption and a long mean time to repair (MTTR). In this work we propose Scrubbing Unit Repositioning for Fast Error Repair (SURFER), a novel approach to exploit partial dynamic reconfiguration coupled with fine-grained redundancy to greatly reduce the MTTR for FPGAs subject to upsets in their configuration memories.