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Concept
Triple modular redundancy
Summary
In computing, triple modular redundancy, sometimes called triple-mode redundancy, (TMR) is a fault-tolerant form of N-modular redundancy, in which three systems perform a process and that result is processed by a majority-voting system to produce a single output. If any one of the three systems fails, the other two systems can correct and mask the fault.
The TMR concept can be applied to many forms of redundancy, such as software redundancy in the form of N-version programming, and is commonly found in fault-tolerant computer systems.
Space satellite systems often use TMR, although satellite RAM usually uses Hamming error correction.
Some ECC memory uses triple modular redundancy hardware (rather than the more common Hamming code), because triple modular redundancy hardware is faster than Hamming error correction hardware. Called repetition code, some communication systems use N-modular redundancy as a simple form of forward error correction. For example, 5-modular redundancy communication systems (such as FlexRay) use the majority of 5 samples – if any 2 of the 5 results are erroneous, the other 3 results can correct and mask the fault.
Modular redundancy is a basic concept, dating to antiquity, while the first use of TMR in a computer was the Czechoslovak computer SAPO, in the 1950s.
The general case of TMR is called N-modular redundancy, in which any positive number of replications of the same action is used. The number is typically taken to be at least three, so that error correction by majority vote can take place; it is also usually taken to be odd, so that no ties may happen.
Majority function
In TMR, three identical logic circuits (logic gates) are used to compute the same set of specified Boolean function. If there are no circuit failures, the outputs of the three circuits are identical. But due to circuit failures, the outputs of the three circuits may be different.
A majority logic gate is used to decide which of the circuits' outputs is the correct output.
Official source
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