High dose radiation detector

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9690578-B2
Application number	US-201313772260-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 20, 2013
Priority date	Feb 20, 2013
Publication date	Jun 27, 2017
Grant date	Jun 27, 2017

Abstract

Described is a processor comprising: a plurality of radiation detectors; a first logic unit to receive outputs from the plurality of radiation detectors, the logic unit to generate an output according to the received outputs, the output of the first logic unit indicating whether the processor was exposed to incoming radiations; and a second logic unit to receive the output from the first logic unit, and to cause the processor to perform an action according to the output from the first logic unit.

First claim

We claim:

1. A multi-core processor comprising:
a plurality of radiation detectors, at least one of the radiation detectors comprising a first plurality of anode and cathode regions at a first end of a substrate; a second plurality of the anode and cathode regions on a second end of the substrate, and a majority of the substrate between the first plurality of the anode and cathode regions and the second plurality of the anode and cathode regions that is devoid of the anode and cathode regions;
a first logic unit to receive outputs from the plurality of radiation detectors,
the first logic unit comprises counters to count a number of received outputs from the plurality of radiation detectors indicating a dose radiation is received,
the first logic unit to generate an output according to an output of the counters, the output of the first logic unit indicating whether the multi-core processor was exposed to radiations; and

a second logic unit to receive the output from the first logic unit, and to cause the multi-core processor to perform an action according to the output from the first logic unit.

2. The multi-core processor of claim 1 further comprising a finite state machine (FSM) to determine whether the output of the counters indicates a majority of the plurality of radiation detectors have been exposed to the dose radiation, wherein the first logic unit to generate the output according to responses from the majority of the plurality of radiation detectors.

3. The multi-core processor of claim 1 , wherein the second logic unit is to turn off the multi-core processor according to the output from the first logic unit.

4. The multi-core processor of claim 1 , wherein the output of the first logic unit indicates the multi-core processor was exposed to radiations when at least two of the plurality of radiation detectors indicate the dose radiation has been received.

5. An apparatus comprising:
a plurality of radiation detectors distributed in a processor die, at least one of the radiation detectors comprising a first plurality of anode and cathode regions at a first end of a substrate; a second plurality of the anode and cathode regions at a second end of the substrate, and a majority of the substrate between the first plurality of the anode and cathode regions and the second plurality of the anode and cathode regions that is devoid of the anode and cathode regions; and
a logic unit to receive outputs from the plurality of radiation detectors,
the logic unit comprises counters to count a number of received outputs from the plurality of radiation detectors indicating a dose radiation is received, and
the logic unit to determine according to an output of the counters whether the processor die was exposed to incoming radiations.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the plurality of radiation detectors is distributed at the corners of the processor die.

7. The apparatus of claim 5 further comprising:
a finite state machine (FSM) to determine whether the output of the counters indicates a majority of the plurality of radiation detectors have been exposed to the dose radiation, wherein the logic unit to generate an output according to responses from the majority of the plurality of radiation detectors.

8. A system comprising:
a memory;
a multi-core processor, coupled to the memory, the multi-core processor including:
a plurality of radiation detectors distributed in the multi-core processor, at least one of the radiation detectors comprising a first plurality of anode and cathode regions at a first end of a substrate; a second plurality of the anode and cathode regions at a second end of the substrate, and a majority of the substrate between the first plurality of the anode and cathode regions and the second plurality of the anode and cathode regions that is devoid of the anode and cathode regions; and
a logic unit to receive outputs from the plurality of radiation detectors,
the logic unit comprises counters to count a number of received outputs from the plurality of radiation detectors indicating a dose radiation is received, and
the logic unit to determine an output according to an output of the counters whether the multi-core processor was exposed to incoming radiations; and

a wireless interface to allow the multi-core processor to communicate with another device; and
a display unit.

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Gill Balkaran Singh
• Seifert Norbert R
• Maiz Jose A
• Yang Xiaofeng
• Kornfeld Avner

Classifications

• G06F11/3024 Primary

  where the computing system component is a central processing unit [CPU] · CPC title

• G06F11/3006

  where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems (multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50) · CPC title

• G06F9/22 Primary

  Microcontrol or microprogram arrangements · CPC title

• G06F11/3058

  Monitoring arrangements for monitoring environmental properties or parameters of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring of power, currents, temperature, humidity, position, vibrations (thermal management in cooling arrangements of a computing system G06F1/206) · CPC title

• G06F11/3093

  Configuration details thereof, e.g. installation, enabling, spatial arrangement of the probes · CPC title