Equi-Noise: A Statistical Model That Combines Embedded Memory Failures and Channel Noise

This paper exploits the predominance of embedded memories in current and emerging wireless transceivers as a means to save power via channel state aware voltage scaling. The paper presents a statistical model that captures errors in embedded memories due to voltage over-scaling and maps the errors to a Gaussian distribution that represents a combination of communication channel noise and hardware noise. Designers can use the proposed model to investigate different power management policies, that capture the performance of the system as a function of both channel and hardware dynamics, thus creating a much richer design space of power, performance and reliability. A case study of a DVB receiver is presented and the validity of the proposed model is confirmed by simulations.