ISS: An iterative scrubbing strategy for improving memory reliability against MBU

Abstract

As technology scales, multiple bit upsets (MBUs) have shown prominent effect, thus affecting the reliability of memory to a great extent. In order to mitigate MBUs errors, interleaving schemes together with single error correction (SEC) codes can be used to provide the greatest protection for advanced computer memories. In this paper, an algorithm of iterative scrubbing strategy (ISS) is proposed for the optimal interleaving distance (ID), which should be maximized under some conditions. The proposed algorithm should keep the complexity and the area overhead of designing ID as low as possible without compromising memory reliability. The key principle is to take advantage of the locality of MBU errors and to realize efficient scrubbing. The efficiency of the proposed approach will be compared with conventional strategy.