Design of Totally Self-Checking Check Circuits for m-Out-of-n Codes

Abstract

The design of totally self-checking check circuits for m-out-of-n codes is described. Totally self-checking m-out-of-n checkers provide an error indication whenever the input is not an m-out-of-n code or whenever a fault occurs within the checker itself. Since the checker checks itself, there is no need for additional maintenance access or periodic exercise of the checker to verify its ability to detect errors. The basic structure of the checker relies on the use of majority detection circuits. Various gate level implementations for the majority detection circuits are also presented, although the self-checking capability of the checker does not depend on their particular implementation since they are exhaustively tested by code inputs. The self-testing checkers for k-out-of-2k codes are discussed in the most detail since the totally self-checking checkers for 1-out-of-n and arbitrary m-out-of-n codes are constructed by first translating the code to a k-out-of-2k code via a totally self-checking translator.