Electronic – Can MCU memory be subject to bit errors and failures

memorymicrocontroller

One of my older prototypes for Super OSD always had one little bug. A single pixel in the video, about midway in the frame would always be off. It did not really affect anything as most pixels normally stayed in the off mode, but it was noticeable during test patterns. I could never narrow down what the cause was.

Thinking about it now, could it have been a failed bit in the memory array? Is this at all common with MCU's with SRAM? The prototype was not abused: a fixed +3.38V (within the rated 3.0V – 3.6V), room temperature operation, minimal load on the outputs. It was a dsPIC33FJ128GP802.

I'm designing a new prototype now and I think it's the same chip as I used last time, so I will see if the problem occurs again. Does anyone know if it is prudent to run a "memory test" on a chip?

Best Answer

yes, they can, but any decent programmer verifies programming.

This is normally done by taking a check-sum of the program. I would actually guess that if it is repeatable, I would reprogram just to be sure, and if it is still repeatable your software is has a small bug. This type of bug can be hell to find.

To check ram, you need to write test characters and read them out, one byte at a type and see if it fails to match.