Various aspects of single-phased burst-error-correcting array codes are explored. These codes are composed of two-dimensional arrays with row and column parities with a diagonally cyclic readout order; they are capable of correcting a single burst error along one diagonal. Optimal codeword sizes are found to have dimensions n/sub 1/*n/sub 2/ such that n/sub 2/ is the smallest prime number larger than n/sub 1/. These codes are capable of reaching the Singleton bound. A new type of error, approximate errors, is defined; in q-ary applications, these errors cause data to be slightly corrupted and therefore still close to the true data level. Phased burst array codes can be tailored to correct these codes with even higher rates than before.>

The mean lifetimes are studied of semiconductor memories that have been encoded with an on-chip single error-correcting code along each row of memory cells. Specifically, the effects of single-cell soft errors and various hardware failures (single-cell, row, column, row-column, and entire chip) in the presence of soft-error scrubbing are examined. An expression is presented for computing the mean time to failure of such memories in the presence of these types of errors using the Poisson approximation; the expression has been confirmed experimentally to accurately model the mean time to failure of memories protected by single error-correcting codes. These analyses will enable the system designer to accurately assess the improvement in mean time to failure (MTTF) achieved by the use of error-control coding.>