An Approach to Designing Fault-Tolerant Computing Systems

Abstract

A methodology that facilitates the design of fault-tolerant computing systems is presented. It is based on the notion of a fail-stop processor. Such a processor automatically halts in response to any internal failure and does so before the effects of that failure become visible. The problem of implementing processors that, with high probability, behave like fail-stop processors is addressed. Axiomatic program verification techniques are described for use in developing provably correct programs for fail-stop processors. The design of a process control system illustrates the use of our methodology.