Which SEU mitigation technique is primarily used to detect and correct bit flips in RAM?

Which SEU mitigation technique is primarily used to detect and correct bit flips in RAM?

• A. Parity memory
• B. Watchdog monitoring
• C. TMR
• D. ECC memory

Answer: (D)

Memory with error-correcting capability detects and fixes bit flips in RAM caused by SEUs by carrying extra parity or ECC bits for each word. When data is written, these extra bits are computed from the data; on read, the ECC logic recalculates and compares against the stored bits. If a single-bit error has occurred, the syndrome points to the exact bit that flipped and it can be flipped back to restore the correct value. It can also flag when multiple bits have flipped, which is more difficult to correct automatically. Other options don’t provide the same RAM-level protection. Parity memory adds a single parity bit that can reveal that an error occurred but cannot pinpoint or fix the faulty bit. A watchdog monitors system health and resets or flags status at a higher level, not the memory content itself. Triple modular redundancy duplicates circuits and uses majority voting to tolerate faults, but it’s more about preventing faults in logic paths than directly correcting bit flips in RAM. So, ECC memory is the mechanism designed to detect and correct bit flips in RAM.

Memory with error-correcting capability detects and fixes bit flips in RAM caused by SEUs by carrying extra parity or ECC bits for each word. When data is written, these extra bits are computed from the data; on read, the ECC logic recalculates and compares against the stored bits. If a single-bit error has occurred, the syndrome points to the exact bit that flipped and it can be flipped back to restore the correct value. It can also flag when multiple bits have flipped, which is more difficult to correct automatically.

Other options don’t provide the same RAM-level protection. Parity memory adds a single parity bit that can reveal that an error occurred but cannot pinpoint or fix the faulty bit. A watchdog monitors system health and resets or flags status at a higher level, not the memory content itself. Triple modular redundancy duplicates circuits and uses majority voting to tolerate faults, but it’s more about preventing faults in logic paths than directly correcting bit flips in RAM.

So, ECC memory is the mechanism designed to detect and correct bit flips in RAM.