Analysis of LLM Vulnerability to GPU Soft Errors: An Instruction-Level Fault Injection Study

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Chai, Duo, Liu, Zizhen, Wang, Shuhuai, Pei, Songwei, Liu, Cheng, Li, Huawei, Wang, Shangguang
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Chai, Duo
Liu, Zizhen
Wang, Shuhuai
Pei, Songwei
Liu, Cheng
Li, Huawei
Wang, Shangguang
author_facet Chai, Duo
Liu, Zizhen
Wang, Shuhuai
Pei, Songwei
Liu, Cheng
Li, Huawei
Wang, Shangguang
contents Large language models (LLMs) are highly compute- and memory-intensive, posing significant demands on high-performance GPUs. At the same time, advances in GPU technology driven by shrinking transistor sizes and lower operating voltages have made these devices increasingly susceptible to soft errors. While prior work has examined GPU reliability, most studies have focused on general-purpose applications or conventional neural networks mostly used for vision tasks such as classification and detection. In contrast, systematic analysis of modern large-scale LLMs remains limited, despite their rapid adoption in diverse application scenarios. Given the unique characteristics of LLMs, their resilience to soft errors may differ substantially from earlier models. To bridge this gap, we conduct the first instruction-level fault injection study of LLM inference. Our approach reveals reliability characteristics from multiple perspectives, highlighting the effects of model architecture, parameter scale, and task complexity. These findings provide new insights into LLM reliability and inform the design of more effective fault tolerance mechanisms.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_19912
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Analysis of LLM Vulnerability to GPU Soft Errors: An Instruction-Level Fault Injection Study
Chai, Duo
Liu, Zizhen
Wang, Shuhuai
Pei, Songwei
Liu, Cheng
Li, Huawei
Wang, Shangguang
Hardware Architecture
Artificial Intelligence
Cryptography and Security
Large language models (LLMs) are highly compute- and memory-intensive, posing significant demands on high-performance GPUs. At the same time, advances in GPU technology driven by shrinking transistor sizes and lower operating voltages have made these devices increasingly susceptible to soft errors. While prior work has examined GPU reliability, most studies have focused on general-purpose applications or conventional neural networks mostly used for vision tasks such as classification and detection. In contrast, systematic analysis of modern large-scale LLMs remains limited, despite their rapid adoption in diverse application scenarios. Given the unique characteristics of LLMs, their resilience to soft errors may differ substantially from earlier models. To bridge this gap, we conduct the first instruction-level fault injection study of LLM inference. Our approach reveals reliability characteristics from multiple perspectives, highlighting the effects of model architecture, parameter scale, and task complexity. These findings provide new insights into LLM reliability and inform the design of more effective fault tolerance mechanisms.
title Analysis of LLM Vulnerability to GPU Soft Errors: An Instruction-Level Fault Injection Study
topic Hardware Architecture
Artificial Intelligence
Cryptography and Security
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.19912