Fault-Tolerant Computing: An Introduction

FIFTEEN years ago, the term fault-tolerant computing made its first widespread appearance in the technical literature. In March of 1971, the Digest of the First International Symposium on Fault-Tolerant Computing appeared, followed in November by the First Special Issue on Fault- Tolerant Computing of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMPUTERS. More than any other, these two publications—the Digests of the FTC Symposia and the Special Issues on Fault- Tolerant Computing—have mirrored the advances in fault- tolerant computing over the last decade and a half. From over 100 submissions—a record high—received for this ninth Special Issue, 24 were selected for publication. These 9 papers and 15 correspondence items certainly continue this proud tradition.