A process-level programming model for software fault tolerance

Software reliability is critical to the operation of modern computer systems. This paper proposes a software-based, process-level programming model for tolerating transient faults, which are errors that temporarily occur in systems. The programming model is portable as its design is based on UNIX POSIX system calls. It contains two modes to accomplish transient-fault detection and correction. The tested benchmark programs are modified to conform to the proposed programming model. Preliminary experiments using the tested benchmark programs show that the proposed approach can monitor failure, detect errors, and recover from transient faults.