Efficient online memory error assessment and circumvention for Linux with RAMpage

Publikation: Beitrag in FachzeitschriftForschungsartikelBeigetragenBegutachtung

Beitragende

  • Horst Schirmeier - , Technische Universität (TU) Dortmund (Autor:in)
  • Ingo Korb - , Technische Universität (TU) Dortmund (Autor:in)
  • Olaf Spinczyk - , Technische Universität (TU) Dortmund (Autor:in)
  • Michael Engel - , Technische Universität (TU) Dortmund (Autor:in)

Abstract

Memory errors are a major source of reliability problems in computer systems. Undetected errors may result in program termination or, even worse, silent data corruption. Recent studies have shown that the frequency of permanent memory errors is an order of magnitude higher than previously assumed and regularly affects everyday operation. To reduce the impact of memory errors, we designed RAMpage, a purely software-based infrastructure to assess and circumvent permanent memory errors in a running commodity x86-64 Linux-based system. We briefly describe the design and implementation of RAMpage and present new results from an extensive qualitative and quantitative evaluation. These results show the efficiency of our approach - RAMpage is able to provide a smooth graceful degradation in the presence of permanent memory errors while requiring only a small overhead in terms of CPU time, energy, and memory space.

Details

OriginalspracheEnglisch
Seiten (von - bis)227-247
Seitenumfang21
FachzeitschriftInternational Journal of Critical Computer-Based Systems
Jahrgang4
Ausgabenummer3
PublikationsstatusVeröffentlicht - 2013
Peer-Review-StatusJa
Extern publiziertJa

Externe IDs

ORCID /0000-0002-1427-9343/work/167216819

Schlagworte

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Schlagwörter

  • DRAM chips, Memory errors, Operating systems, Reliable operation, Silent data corruption, Software-based fault tolerance