GUARDS: a generic upgradable architecture for real-time dependablesystems
Powell, D.; Arlat, J.; Beus-Dukic, L.; Bondavalli, A.; Coppola, P.; Fantechi, A.; Jenn, E.; Rabejac, C.; Wellings, A.
Parallel and Distributed Systems, IEEE Transactions on
Volume 10, Issue 6, Jun 1999 Page(s):580 - 599
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/71.774908
Summary:The development and validation of fault-tolerant computers for
critical real-time applications are currently both costly and time
consuming. Often, the underlying technology is out-of-date by the time
the computers are ready for deployment. Obsolescence can become a
chronic problem when the systems in which they are embedded have
lifetimes of several decades. This paper gives an overview of the work
carried out in a project that is tackling the issues of cost and rapid
obsolescence by defining a generic fault-tolerant computer architecture
based essentially on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components (both
processor hardware boards and real-time operating systems). The
architecture uses a limited number of specific, but generic, hardware
and software components to implement an architecture that can be
configured along three dimensions: redundant channels, redundant lanes,
and integrity levels. The two dimensions of physical redundancy allow
the definition of a wide variety of instances with different fault
tolerance strategies. The integrity level dimension allows application
components of different levels of criticality to coexist in the same
instance. The paper describes the main concepts of the architecture, the
supporting environments for development and validation, and the
prototypes currently being implemented
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