The design of Tri-D real-time computer systems

A family of designs are presented for high-performance real-time computers based on novel real-time computer design principles. These design principles are founded upon a three-dimensional measure that defines system performance in three critical dimensions of real-time computing: raw computational speed, high-speed interrupt handling, and high input/output throughput. High three-dimensional performance is achieved through: (1) the design of an architecture based on a symmetrical tightly-coupled multiprocessor structure; (2) the use of custom-designed very large-scale integration (VLSI) and application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips; and (3) the development of a real-time Unix operating system. In addition, these so-called Tri-D systems are characterized by several key fault tolerance features that provide enhanced reliability, availability, and graceful degradation capabilities