Implementing fault injection and tolerance mechanisms in multiprocessor systems

The size and complexity of today´s multiprocessor systems require the development of new techniques to measure their dependability. An effective technique allowing one to inject faults in message passing multiprocessor systems is presented. Interrupt messages are used to trigger fault injection routines in the targeted processors. Any fault that can be emulated by a modification of the memory content of processors can be injected. That includes faults that could occur within the processors, memories and even in the communication network. The proposed technique allows one to control the time and location of faults as well as other characteristics. It has been used in a prototype multiprocessor system running real applications in order to compare the efficiency of various error detection and correction mechanisms