Operating System Reliability for the Navy Advanced Avionic Digital Computer

This paper discusses reliability aspects of a modular multiprocessor currently under development by the Naval Air Systems Command. The operating system, or executive, of this computer may be implemented in various ways. These include a totally software "floating executive," one dedicated to a specific processor, or an executive consisting of special-purpose hardware. The objections to hardware executives, especially for avionic applications, include a supposed degradation in system reliability. This paper shows that under certain conditions this degradation need not occur.