Title :
Safety issues in the comparative analysis of dependable architectures
Author :
Choi, Charles Y. ; Johnson, Barry W. ; Profeta, Joseph A., III
Author_Institution :
Virginia Univ., Charlottesville, VA, USA
fDate :
9/1/1997 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
This paper illustrates the value of analytical techniques for the safety analysis of dependable architectures at the system level. Its important contributions are: (1) comparative analysis of five common hardware architectures for life-critical applications; (2) demonstration of the effect of various coverage parameters on system safety; and (3) illustration of important metrics in evaluating system safety. Discrete space, CTMC (continuous time Markov chains) are used to model the five architectures at the building block level: a simplex architecture; two gracefully degrading architectures with and without repair; and two hard-failing architectures
Keywords :
Markov processes; failure analysis; reliability theory; safety; comparative analysis; dependable architectures; discrete space continuous time Markov chains; hardware architectures; life-critical applications; reliability analysis; safety issues; Costs; Degradation; Digital systems; Failure analysis; Fault tolerance; Safety; Steady-state; Switches; System analysis and design; Voting;
Journal_Title :
Reliability, IEEE Transactions on