Applied Sciences | Open Access |

A Comprehensive Study on Fault-Tolerant RISC-V Architectures and Safety-Aware Cyber-Physical Systems for Reliable Autonomous and Space Computing

Dr. Adrian M. Keller , Department of Computer Engineering Helios Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland

Abstract

This article synthesizes contemporary theory and practice in fault-tolerant microarchitectures with a focus on RISC-V processor cores, dual-core lockstep designs, software-implemented redundancy, and latency-aware provisioning in prediction-serving pipelines. Drawing exclusively on the provided literature, it constructs an integrative perspective that links radiation- and transient-fault mitigation strategies from aerospace and satellite applications to safety-critical domains such as automotive zonal controllers and edge prediction services. The structured abstract presents: (a) background emphasizing the confluence of reliability, performance, and cost pressures; (b) methods describing comparative, design-oriented, and analytical approaches distilled from the references; (c) key thematic results synthesizing hardware-and-software co-design patterns, statistical injection frameworks, thread protection techniques, and system-level provisioning trade-offs; and (d) conclusions outlining research directions, practical recommendations, and limitations. This contribution does not present new empirical measurements but offers a deep theoretical elaboration that clarifies design choices, exposes nuanced trade-offs, and proposes a unified framework for future experimental validation and standardization.

Keywords

Fault tolerance, RISC-V, lockstep architectures, radiation effects, prediction-serving pipelines

References

Crankshaw, D., Sela, G. E., Mo, X., Zumar, C., Stoica, I., Gonzalez, J., & Tumanov, A. (2020, October). InferLine: latency-aware provisioning and scaling for prediction serving pipelines. In Proceedings of the 11th ACM Symposium on Cloud Computing (pp. 477-491).

Dantas, Y. G., & Nigam, V. (2023). Automating safety and security co-design through semantically rich architecture patterns. ACM Transactions on Cyber-Physical Systems, 7(1), 1-28.

Foudeh, H. A., Luk, P. C. K., & Whidborne, J. F. (2021). An advanced unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) approach via learning-based control for overhead power line monitoring: A comprehensive review. IEEE Access, 9, 130410-130433.

Li, J., et al. (2022). Duckcore: A fault-tolerant processor core architecture based on the RISC-V ISA. Electronics, 11(1).

Blasi, L., et al. (2019). A RISC-V fault-tolerant microcontroller core architecture based on a hardware thread full/partial protection and a thread-controlled watchdog timer. In APPLEPIES, 2019, pp. 505–511.

Wilson, A. E., et al. (2019). Neutron radiation testing of fault tolerant RISC-V soft processor on Xilinx SRAM-based FPGAs. In IEEE SCC, 2019, pp. 25–32.

Santos, D. A., et al. (2020). A low-cost fault-tolerant RISC-V processor for space systems. In DTIS, 2020, pp. 1–5.

Leveugle, R., et al. (2009). Statistical fault injection: Quantified error and confidence. In IEEE/ACM DATE, 2009, pp. 502–506.

Fayyaz, M., & Vladimirova, T. (2014). Fault-tolerant distributed approach to satellite on-board computer design. In 2014 IEEE Aerospace Conference. ISSN 1095-323X.

Ginosar, R. (2012). Survey of processors for space. In DASIA, 2012, pp. 1–5.

Goloubeva, O., et al. (2006). Software-implemented hardware fault tolerance. Springer Science & Business Media, 2006.

Abdul Salam Abdul Karim. (2023). Fault-Tolerant Dual-Core Lockstep Architecture for Automotive Zonal Controllers Using NXP S32G Processors. International Journal of Intelligent Systems and Applications in Engineering, 11(11s), 877–885. Retrieved from https://ijisae.org/index.php/IJISAE/article/view/7749

Gomaa, M. A., et al. (2003). Transient-fault recovery for chip multiprocessors. IEEE Micro, 23(6), 76–83.

Gomez-Cornejo, J., et al. (2013). Fast context reloading lockstep approach for SEUs mitigation in a FPGA soft core processor. In IECON 2013 - 39th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, pp. 2261–2266.

Hagen, W. von. (2006). The Definitive Guide to GCC. 2nd ed. Apress.

Article Statistics

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Copyright License

Download Citations

How to Cite

Dr. Adrian M. Keller. (2024). A Comprehensive Study on Fault-Tolerant RISC-V Architectures and Safety-Aware Cyber-Physical Systems for Reliable Autonomous and Space Computing. The American Journal of Applied Sciences, 6(09), 17–22. Retrieved from https://www.theamericanjournals.com/index.php/tajas/article/view/6960