Development of a programming model for radiation-resistant software

The adverse effects of ionizing radiation on microelectronic systems include cumulative dosage effects, single-event upsets (SEU's) and latch-up. Most frequent, especially when the radiation environment includes heavy ions, are SEU's. Unfortunately SEU's are difficult to detect since they can be read (in RAM or ROM) as valid addresses. They can however be handled in software by proper techniques. The authors refer to their method as MRS - Maximally Redundant Software. The MRS programming model which the authors are developing uses multiply redundant boot blocks, majority voting, periodic refresh, and error recovery techniques to minimize the deleterious effects of SEU's. 1 figure