Title :
Cost models for large file memory DRAMs with ECC and bad block marking
Author :
Wickman, Curtis ; Elliott, Duncan G. ; Cockburn, Bruce F.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Alberta Univ., Edmonton, Alta., Canada
Abstract :
We present cost models appropriate for large file memory DRAMs that exploit error-correcting codes, redundant elements and bad block marking in order to reduce the average cost per working bit. Many different fault-tolerance methods have been considered previously for DRAMs but, because of the constraints of conventional commodity memory, only a few methods, such as redundant rows and columns, have entered wide-spread use. Our research on file memory breaks from past work by relaxing the requirements that random-access be fast and that shipped devices contain 100% of the nominal working bit capacity. We show that, under the relaxed requirements of file memory, the greater potential efficiencies of large ECC codewords and bad block marking may become cost-effective. These file memory techniques may thus be a way of accelerating the economic production of 256 Mbit and 1 Gbit DRAMs
Keywords :
DRAM chips; error correction codes; fault tolerance; integrated circuit economics; redundancy; 1 Gbit; 256 Mbit; ECC; ECC codewords; bad block marking; cost models; error-correcting codes; fault-tolerance methods; file memory techniques; large file memory DRAMs; redundant elements; Bandwidth; Computer errors; Cost function; Error correction codes; Production; Radio access networks; Random access memory; Read only memory; Redundancy; System software;
Conference_Titel :
Defect and Fault Tolerance in VLSI Systems, 1999. DFT '99. International Symposium on
Conference_Location :
Albuquerque, NM
Print_ISBN :
0-7695-0325-x
DOI :
10.1109/DFTVS.1999.802899