A strongly fault secure (SFS) ALU design based on the Berger check prediction (BCP) technique is presented. The fault and error models of a large class of VLSI ALU designs are discussed. The proposed design is proved to be fault-secure and self-testing with respect to any single fault in the ALU part. The proposed BCP ALU is proved to be SFS with any design of BCP circuit. Consequently, a self-checking processor whose data path is encoded entirely in a Berger code can be achieved. An efficient self-checking processor can then be designed

A new channel routing algorithm called DTR (Defect-Tolerant Routing) is investigated. This algorithm minimizes the total area and simultaneously maximizes the performance by reducing the critical area which can potentially be the source of logical faults caused by the bridging effects of spot defects. Experimental results show DTR produces less critical area than Yoshimura&Kuh's algorithm [l].

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From the r e l i a b i l i t y point of view, the uniqueness of path between any processor and memory module in a standard k-column Shuffle/Exchange (S/E) network is an inherent weakness. It is proposed to add a column of switches to the existing multistage S/E network such that the modified network, which will be called the S/E-Plus network, will retain the permuting power of the corresponding S/E network and have dual paths between any processor and any memory module. Fault tolerant routing algorithm is then designed to exploit the dual path structure of the S/E-Plus network. Various applications of the routing algorithm including a technique for performing permutation in the S/E-Plus network in which a fault exists are also discussed. Finally, the path r e l i a b i l i t y and the path r e l i a b i l i t y gain are defined to evaluate the S/E-Plus network. P e r m i s s i o n to copy w i t h o u t f e e a l l or p a r t o f t h i s m a t e r i a l i s granted provided t h a t t h e c o p i e s are not made or d i s t r i b u t e d f o r d i r e c t commercial a d v a n t a g e , the ACH c o p y r i g h t