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Execution

Power Resilience

Losing power costs work, not correctness

Each inference is a completion transaction with defined stop points. Checkpoint integrity and Energy Contract terms are validated before anything resumes.

Architecture defined Pre-silicon
Status
Architecture defined
Transaction model
Inference Completion State Machine
Admission
Energy Contract before EXECUTE
Resumption
RESTORE_VALIDATE
Basis
Design targets; no silicon measurements

Design targets · not measured silicon results

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Trust domain Trusted compute
Nelix trusted compute domain Floorplan with four nested planes: board domain, package, die, and a central trust island for device identity, measurement and signing. Compute, memory, sensor I/O, metrology, crypto and telemetry route into a ring bus. Only signed data leaves through an attestation export port. Board domain Package Die Die extent Package extent Compute Bounded array Memory Measured store I/O phy Sensor ingress Metrology Sense & sample Crypto Sign & seal Telemetry Signed export Ring bus Trust island Root of trust Key slots Identity · measure · sign Port signed Attestation export Nothing else crosses
  • Trust boundary
  • Supporting logic
  • Signed data in flight
Power Resilience · labelled architecture
Infrastructure equipment in the field conditions this mechanism is designed for
Field condition the mechanism is specified against
PROBLEM

A half-finished result looks finished

Brownouts and outages are normal at the edge. Resuming from inconsistent intermediate state produces wrong answers with no visible marker that anything failed.

While running Runtime verification
Continuous runtime verification A conceptual die floorplan for continuous measurement. An always-on measurement engine occupies the left of the die, with a four-phase cycle beneath it: sample, hash, extend, compare. To its right a recessive band shows workload activity in three lanes of uneven task footprints. A sample bus runs under the band and a comb of taps drops from it into a digest chain of linked cells, one per epoch, which the light extends from left to right. One epoch is flagged and re-measured. Beneath the chain the measured history stacks downward in rows that fade as they age, and the chain has no entry from its left end, so the record can only be extended and never rewound. Fresh evidence leaves through a port on the right edge. Operating die · power on Measure engine Always on Sampler Hash macro Every epoch not only at boot Sample Hash Extend Compare Workload activity L0 L1 L2 Sample bus Rolling digest E0 E1 E2 E3 E4 E5 E6 No rewind Re-measure Measured history E6 E5 E4 E3 Fresh quote Measurement continues for as long as the device runs
  • Measured epoch
  • Flagged for re-measure
  • Light = the digest being extended
Boot-time proof goes stale, so measurement continues while the device works and the evidence an operator asks for is always current.
Transactions with safe boundaries · design intent
APPROACH

Transactions with safe boundaries

The Inference Completion State Machine checkpoints only at consistent points. RESTORE_VALIDATE checks integrity and Energy Contract compatibility before work continues.

ORDER OF OPERATIONS

Sequence

Order is the mechanism, and nothing here is optional.

Sequence Power Resilience
The enforced order of operations, 6 steps from first to last Sequence diagram with a trunk on the left edge. Steps in order: Admit; Execute; Checkpoint; Restore-validate; Renegotiate; Complete. Gate ticks sit between steps; the last step is the only exit. Enforced order 01 Admit Energy Contract accepted before EXECUTE 02 Execute Work proceeds under contract and checkpoint policy 03 Checkpoint State captured only at consistent boundaries 04 Restore-validate Integrity and contract checked on resumption 05 Renegotiate New terms at a safe boundary, or untrusted abort 06 Complete Only COMPLETE may proceed to PROVE and EXPORT No step may be skipped The enforced order of operations, 6 steps from first to last Sequence diagram with a trunk on the left edge. Steps in order: Admit; Execute; Checkpoint; Restore-validate; Renegotiate; Complete. Gate ticks sit between steps; the last step is the only exit. 01 Admit Energy Contract accepted before EXECUTE 02 Execute Work proceeds under contract and checkpoint policy 03 Checkpoint State captured only at consistent boundaries 04 Restore-validate Integrity and contract checked on resumption 05 Renegotiate New terms at a safe boundary, or untrusted abort 06 Complete Only COMPLETE may proceed to PROVE and EXPORT
  • Ordered step
  • Only exit
Each step taps the trunk once; the gates between them are why the order holds.
Memory-block silicon
Memory-block silicon
PROPERTIES

What follows from the diagram

  1. Transactional requests

    Complete and export, or abort as untrusted, no middle

  2. Consistent checkpoints

    Discard-and-retry is sound only at consistent boundaries

  3. RESTORE_VALIDATE

    Integrity and contract terms checked together

  4. Defined degradation

    Lower clock profile or refuse admission, never undefined

Engage

Reviewing this mechanism?

The specification can still change. That stops being true after tape-out.

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