Characteristics of Reversible Circuits for Error Detection

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that reversible circuits significantly improve error detection capabilities through simulation, with high probability of error unveiling, and exhibit reduced masking effects compared to irreversible circuits.

Contribution

It provides a rigorous proof that reversibility enhances error detection performance and empirically confirms effectiveness for multiple errors.

Findings

Reversible circuits guarantee error detection with probability depending only on error size.

Empirical results show effectiveness extends to multiple errors.

Reversible circuits reduce masking effects unlike irreversible architectures.

Abstract

In this work, we consider error detection via simulation for reversible circuit architectures. We rigorously prove that reversibility augments the performance of this simple error detection protocol to a considerable degree. A single randomly generated input is guaranteed to unveil a single error with a probability that only depends on the size of the error, not the size of the circuit itself. Empirical studies confirm that this behavior typically extends to multiple errors as well. In conclusion, reversible circuits offer characteristics that reduce masking effects -- a desirable feature that is in stark contrast to irreversible circuit architectures.