Applicative Architectures for Fault-Tolerant Multiprocessors

Abstract

This paper proposes functional programming frameworks for the design of highly reliable multiprocessor systems. In contrast to imperative programming environments, a functional environment offers elegant, relatively simple, and efficient solutions to concurrent error detection and recovery problems in multiprocessors. Specific fault tolerance mechanisms for upset exposure, fault containment, secure task assignment, and recovery are developed for a class of applicative multiprocessor architectures. Verification of abstract behavioral characteristics of applicative tasks is used for exposing faults during the execution of tasks. The fault containment mechanism is based on isolation of stack and heap segments of tasks. A protocol for secure task assignment is defined between system components. The architecture permits incremental, distributed, and asynchronous backups of system state. Finally, recovery is accomplished, even in the worst cases, by re-execution of a small number of tasks.

This research was supported in part by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under Contract NASA NAG 1-613 in cooperation with the Illinois Computer Laboratory for Aerospace Systems and Software (ICLASS), by the Joint Services Electronics Program (U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, and the U.S. Air Force) under Contract N00014-84-C-0149, by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. US NSF DCR84-10110, by the U. S. Department of Energy under Grant No. US DOE-DE-FG02-85ER25001, and by an IBM Donation.