Characteristics of reversible circuits for error detection
Lukas Burgholzer,
Robert Wille,
Richard Kueng
Affiliations
Lukas Burgholzer
Institute for Integrated Circuits, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria; Corresponding author.
Robert Wille
Chair for Design Automation, Technical University of Munich, Germany11 https://www.cda.cit.tum.de/research/quantum/.; Software Competence Center Hagenberg GmbH (SCCH), Austria
Richard Kueng
Institute for Integrated Circuits, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria
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 reversible 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.