A step-by-step tutorial of the methods and tools used for the reliability analysis of fault-tolerant systems is presented. Emphasis is on the representation of architectural features in mathematical models. Details of the mathematical solution of complex reliability models are not presented. Instead the use of several recently developed computer programs--SURE, ASSIST, STEM, PAWS--which automate the generation and solution of these models is described. Butler, Ricky W. and Johnson, Sally C. Langley Research Center ARCHITECTURE (COMPUTERS); COMPUTER PROGRAMS; CONTROL SYSTEMS DESIGN; FAULT TOLERANCE; MATHEMATICAL MODELS; REDUNDANCY; RELIABILITY ANALYSIS; FAILURE ANALYSIS; FAULT TREES; MARKOV PROCESSES; SYNTAX...

Covering both the theoretical and practical aspects of fault-tolerant mobile systems, and fault tolerance and analysis, this book tackles the current issues of reliability-based optimization of computer networks, fault-tolerant mobile systems, and fault tolerance and reliability of high speed and hierarchical networks.The book is divided into six parts to facilitate coverage of the material by course instructors and computer systems professionals. The sequence of chapters in each part ensures the gradual coverage of issues from the basics to the most recent developments. A useful set of references, including electronic sources, is listed at the end of each chapter./a

This book presents state-of-the-art research results in the area of formal methods for real-time and fault-tolerant systems. The papers consider problems and solutions in safety-critical system design and examine how wellthe use of formal techniques for design, analysis and verification serves in relating theory to practical realities. The book contains papers on real-time and fault-tolerance issues. Formal logic, process algebra, and action/event models are applied: - to specify and model qualitative and quantitative real-time and fault-tolerant behavior, - to analyze timeliness requirements and consequences of faulthypotheses, - to verify protocols and program code, - to formulate formal frameworks for development of real-time and fault-tolerant systems, - to formulate semantics of languages. The integration and cross-fertilization of real-time and fault-tolerance issues have brought newinsights in recent years, and these are presented in this book.

Computer software reliability has never been so important. Computers are used in areas as diverse as air traffic control, nuclear reactors, real-time military, industrial process control, security system control, biometric scan-systems, automotive, mechanical and safety control, and hospital patient monitoring systems. Many of these applications require critical functionality as software applications increase in size and complexity. This book is an introduction to software reliability engineering and a survey of the state-of-the-art techniques, methodologies and tools used to assess the reliability of software and combined software-hardware systems. Current research results are reported and future directions are signposted. This text will interest: graduate students as a course textbook introducing reliability engineering software; reliability engineers as a broad, up-to-date survey of the field; and researchers and lecturers in universities and research institutions as a one-volume reference.

The first ESPRIT programme contained several ambitious projects. of which REQUEST. with its wide brief covering all issues of assessment of quality and reliability of software process and product. was one. Within REQUEST. the research described in this volume. concerning those special problems of software that is required to have extremely high reliability. was particularly difficult and ambitious. The problems of software reliability are essentially twofold. On the one hand there is a concern with methods for achieving adequate reliability. on the other hand there is a need to evaluate what has actually been achieved in a particular case. Naturally. far more effort has been spent over the years on the former problem; indeed. there is a sense in which all of conventional software engineering can be seen as a response to this problem. However. it is becoming clearer than ever that we can only claim to have a truly sCientific approach. and so justify the description software engineering. when we are able to measure the attributes of process and product. It is still common to find software development methods recommended to users on purely anecdotal grounds. This is not good enough. Rational choices between rival approaches can only be made on the basis of quantified costs and benefits. Even more worrying is the tendency to argue that a software product can be depended upon merely because it has been developed by honest men using such anecdotal 'good practice'.

This book describes the state-of-the-art in energy efficient, fault-tolerant embedded systems. It covers the entire product lifecycle of electronic systems design, analysis and testing and includes discussion of both circuit and system-level approaches. Readers will be enabled to meet the conflicting design objectives of energy efficiency and fault-tolerance for reliability, given the up-to-date techniques presented.