Use of a functional programming model in fault tolerant parallel processing

In a fault-tolerant parallel computer, a functional programming model can facilitate distributed checkpointing, error recovery, load balancing, and graceful degradation. Such a model has been implemented on the Draper fault-tolerant parallel processor (FTPP). When used in conjunction with the FTPP´s fault-detection and masking capabilities, this implementation results in a graceful degradation of system performance after faults. Three graceful degradation algorithms are presented. A user interface has been implemented which requires minimal cognitive overhead by the application programmer, masking such complexities as the system´s redundancy, distributed nature, variable complement of processing resources, load balancing, fault occurrence, and recovery. This user interface is described and its use demonstrated.<>