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U.S. Department of Energy
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The fault-tolerant multiprocessor computer

Book ·
OSTI ID:6978469

This book presents studies of two fault-tolerant computer systems designed to meet the extreme reliability requirements for safety- critical functions in advanced NASA vehicles , plus a study of potential architectures for future flight control fault-tolerant systems, which might succeed the current generation of computers. While it is understood that these studies were done for NASA, they also have practical commercial applicability. The fault-tolerant multiprocessor (FTMP) architecture is a high reliability computer concept. The basic organization of the FTMP is that of a general purpose homogeneous multiprocessor. Three processors operate on a shared system (memory and l/O) bus. Replication and tight synchronization of all elements and hardware voting are employed to detect and correct any single fault. Reconfiguration is then employed to ''repair'' a fault. Multiple faults may be tolerated as a sequence of single faults with repair between fault occurrences.

Research Organization:
Charles Stark Draper Lab., Inc.
OSTI ID:
6978469
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English