Fault-Tolerant Computing: An Overview

The purpose of this report is to outline the major concepts and developments in the area of fault tolerant computing. Both hardware and software fault tolerance issues are addressed. The topics covered include module function and system-level fault detection methods, redundancy and reconfiguration strategies, valid fault models, and coding and checking in computer systems. Software fault tolerance methods such as recovery blocks, design diversity, and checkpointing and recovery are also discussed. Major issues in modeling and evaluation of fault-tolerant systems are outlined. The design of two successful commercial systems is discussed.