Abstract: As signal-processing circuits become more complex, it is common to find several filters or FFTs operating in parallel. Soft errors pose a reliability threat to modern electronic circuits. For some applications, an interesting option is to use algorithmic-based fault tolerance (ABFT) techniques that try to exploit the algorithmic properties to detect and correct errors. One example is fast Fourier transforms (FFTs) that are a key building block in many systems. Several protection schemes have been proposed to detect and correct errors in FFTs. Among those, probably the use of the Parsevals or sum of squares check is the most widely known. Recently, a technique that exploits this fact to implement fault tolerance on parallel filters has been proposed. In this brief, this technique is first applied to protect FFTs. Then, two improved protection schemes that combine the use of error correction codes and Parseval checks are proposed and evaluated. The results show that the proposed schemes can further reduce the implementation cost of protection.
Keywords: Algorithmic-basedgfaultttolerance (ABFT), Errorrcorrectiongcodesb(ECCs),FastgFourier transforms (FFTs),Softrerrors,Parseval theorem.