Embedded memories (Volatile and Non Volatile Memories) are the most critical blocks concerning permanent and transient faults such soft-errors. Fault detection in memories is typically addressed by using Error Detection and Correction Codes (EDC or ECC), but several limitation are inherently embedded in EDC/ECC being used as a standalone approach.

Standard EDC/ECC itself is not allowing SIL3 compliance for a memory sub-system composed by the memory array, the memory controller and the protection circuitry; EDC/ECC has a meaningful impact in terms of area and timing overhead; for large memories, multiple faults cause protection degradation; from a system point of view, EDC/ECC is not a solution for faults caused by unintentional or forbidden accesses.

fRMEM is an IP providing on top of EDC/ECC a set of proprietary techniques to fulfil the limitations of a pure EDC/ECC based solution. fRMEM is available for SRAM connected to the system bus, for Tightly Coupled Memories, caches and for non volatile memories (Flashes, NAND Flashes and EEPROM). fRMEM is also designed to allow interoperability with external Built-In-Self-Test or Built-In-Self Repair modules. fRMEM is certified by TÜV SÜD: it fulfils the safety integrity level SIL3 in accordance with IEC 61508, the international norm for safety critical electronics.

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