3 ms·
If there might be a software remedy (or at least amelioration) of the hardware problem of random bit flips affecting a software data structure -- it might invol
by peter_d_sherman 3y ago
If there might be a software remedy (or at least amelioration) of the hardware problem of random bit flips affecting a software data structure -- it might involve creating multiple (more than 1, 2 or greater) redundant data structures in memory -- and checking each one for consistency against the others at specific intervals...
If the random bit flips affect code -- then if the code is deterministic, then one solution (or at least amelioration) might be running multiple copies of the same code -- but loaded at different memory locations and where the results of one set of code's calculations are checked against the results of the same set of code's calculations -- but loaded and executed from a different memory location...
Kludgy? Yes -- but if the underlying hardware is buggy (random bit errors which cannot be removed for whatever reason) -- then it may be the only effective way to make the system work, despite the kludgyness...
Which brings up a strictly academic question -- what would an OS where each OS data structure and OS code path was replicated/redundant (and the results of running each redundant code path / data structure and the results checked at various intervals) -- look like?
(I know NASA did something like that a long time ago with using something like five redundant computers where each computer checks the results of the computation of the group, and if there's an inconsistency, the computer producing the inconsistent result would be shut down...)
Related: https://history.nasa.gov/computers/Ch5-5.html https://history.nasa.gov/computers/Ch5-5.html