Abstract
The architectural frameworks assumed in this chapter are those of OSA and XPA, and are summarised below:
-
a)
distributed computations are assumed to be structured as software components communicating via messages;
-
b)
XPA: software components execute on fail-controlled nodes with the fail-silent property: a node either functions according to the specification or stops functioning;
OSA: the fail-silent property is not essential for nodes, so software components can execute on ordinary (potentially) fail-uncontrolled nodes; however, all the protocols for message passing are executed on fail-silent hardware (the Network Attachment Controllers, NACs);
-
c)
nodes communicate with each other through redundant communication networks;
-
d)
software components can be replicated on distinct nodes for increased reliability; the degree of replication (if any) for a software component will be determined by the failure characteristic of the underlying nodes: K+1 replicas can tolerate up to K replica failures if the nodes are assumed to be fail-silent, whilst 3K+1 replicas are needed if the nodes are assumed to be fail-uncontrolled.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1991 ECSC — EEC — EAEC, Brussels — Luxembourg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Powell, D. (1991). Fail-Silent Hardware for Distributed Systems. In: Powell, D. (eds) Delta-4: A Generic Architecture for Dependable Distributed Computing. Research Reports ESPRIT, vol 1. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-84696-0_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-84696-0_11
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-54985-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-84696-0
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive