Neutron Flux Density Increasing
CounterRotatingProps
Posts: 1,132
No, were not talking about Star Trek or Flux Capacitors - it's a real, measured phenomenon.
Found the article and especially the charts·interesting.
" Data from around the world shows that sea-level neutron flux rates are continuing to increase, which means that problems once confined to the heavens have come home to roost for system designers here on Earth. "
http://www.pldesignline.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=220301387
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Found the article and especially the charts·interesting.
" Data from around the world shows that sea-level neutron flux rates are continuing to increase, which means that problems once confined to the heavens have come home to roost for system designers here on Earth. "
http://www.pldesignline.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=220301387
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Comments
A really bitter pill for FPGA guys to have to swallow.
Redundancy and error correction would help but that
makes everything more expensive, slower and harder
to design.
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"Where am I? Where am I going? Why am I in a handbasket?"
What really drills this home is that these solar neutrons "can penetrate several feet of concrete".
Forget the Tanning Salons - just sit in your Cold War era bunker!
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OK OK before the purists jump all over me - I know its U.V. not N. that tans - at least
the radiation might give a free skin cancer removal treatment (or cause it) *yikes!*
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"Sorry, but the neutron flux density increase ate my homework".
and the teacher's reply?
"Yeah, I know what you mean - the influx of the flux seems to have had many side effects. Next to your name in my grade book the 'B' now seems to say 'D' !"
hehehe
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(Edited for clarity)
Post Edited (Chuckz) : 10/8/2009 7:32:56 PM GMT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron
"To actually destroy or destabilize electronic devices like FPGA's you need a *intense*, wide spectrum EM-pulse. An exploding atom bomb can do this, and certain devices specifically designed for that task."
http://www.natami.net/knowledge.php?b=6¬e=11946
The Natami is an advanced Amiga in FPGA.
Post Edited (Chuckz) : 10/8/2009 10:38:55 PM GMT
I was wrong about the origin of the charge from free neutrons being decay, it is neutron capture.
"Neutrons are uncharged and cannot disturb a circuit on their own, but undergo neutron capture by the nucleus of an atom in a chip. This process may result in the production of charged secondaries, such as alpha particles and oxygen nuclei, which can then cause soft errors."- Wikipedia.
·
We used SECDED algorithm to account for changed bits.
Bean.
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- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Does that byte of memory hold "A", 65, $41 or %01000001 ?
Yes it does...
·
My Conclusion as a loyal BRAND-X user is that prices may go down on Brand-X and rise on ACTEL.
So, I will buy a lot more Brand-X and Vendor1 and Vendor2 chips,
and make nice rugged widgets in solid lead enclosures,
or whatever RoHS materials have comparable radiation blocking to lead,
and has slow neutron absorption characteristics.
What fools believe ads that compare their product as absolutely superior to BRAND-X anyway?
Is there a law that prevents Bayer from advertising the FACT that the competing brand whose
generic chemical name is acetominophen is REALLY THE LEADING CAUSE OF LIVER FAILURE?
(Second only to morbid addiction to high-proof alcohol and cigarettes.)
The Commercial Product formerly known as "News" has been Refurbished as "MisGuidance for the Consumer Caste",
as "Advertising" becomes as Ubiquitously Obviously False as common SPAM.
Need to backup your semiconductors with pre-transistor technology? Maybe, but...
ACTEL's infomercial Reminds me of when I tried to find out what kind of batteries Eveready Titanium were;
Eveready had such a stupid explanation on their site that it looked like it was written as a
kindergarten class assignment, complete with misspelled absolutely unscientific silliness.
I looked for it but couldn't find it again, so I'm sure it was an embarrassment to the company and some idiot got fired.
Doc
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There are 10 types of people in the world, those that understand binary and those that don't.
was that really an ACTEL's infomercial ??
I was looking at the study from the university in Finland, but didn't see any ads or references to ACTEL on any of the sites - perhaps you saw one of those rotating ad banners? Or is Embedded.com *sponsored* soley by ACTEL ?? (if so, grrrrr)
@All
Even though I posted this in a somewhat humorous vein, the effect is real --- no not at the levels of distroying the chip, but enough to flip a few bits. If my jump instruction's location were hit hard enough to change the jump to address in a critical piece of code ... well then the dog ate my homework [noparse]:)[/noparse])
It seems like what you guys have dug up from the web seems to indicate that the RAD doesn't have to be strong enough to kill us to have an effect on a chip. It just has to 'hit the right spot hard enough' Right?
I guess the question is just how much of an effect would it have? Wouldn't a single neutron impact in the right spot in a CCD cause both quantum and electrical effects - because the impact transfers the momentum of the particle and could indirectly trigger a state change? It's not likely that a single N would do this as it would have to be very high energy, but how likely is it that there would be only a single N? They'd be in packets.
@Bean:
can you give us an idea of what kind of RAD was involved in the tests you did that would flip a bit?
cheers
- H
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Blaming Anti-matter for all my woes [noparse]:)[/noparse]
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NASA Office of Logic Design A scientific study of the problems of digital
engineering for space flight systems, with a view to
their practical solution.
http://klabs.org/index_klabs_dot_org.htm
NASA/GSFC Radiation Effects & Analysis Home Page
http://radhome.gsfc.nasa.gov/top.htm
Last few lines of article Page 3:
" Data from around the world shows that sea-level neutron flux rates are continuing to increase, which means that problems once confined to the heavens have come home to roost for system designers here on Earth.
Mike Brogley, a 20 year veteran of the semiconductor industry, is a product marketing manager at Actel Corp.
"
Chart from article:
Well, then GGGRRRR! [noparse]:)[/noparse] --- thanks for pointing that out ... wasn't thinking about that aspect...
At least the University research was *independent* - er, ah, was it really ???
They probably don't have funding disclosures in Finland !
- H
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