Bit-modular defect/fault-tolerant convolvers

Design of a family of high-throughput modular convolvers is discussed, with particular reference to the defect and fault tolerance issues. The proposed architecture is based on parallel computation for the individual operands' bits with final merging of the partial results. Different degrees of defect/fault tolerance are considered for different production and operational environments. Modularity is exploited to support also functional adaptability.