research-article

Open access

Application semantic driven assertions toward fault tolerant computing

Author:

Goutam Kumar SahaAuthors Info & Claims

Ubiquity, Volume 2006, Issue June

Article No.: 1, Pages 1 - 27

https://doi.org/10.1145/1147991.1143395

Published: 01 June 2006 Publication History

All formats PDF

Abstract

Based on semantics of an application processing logic, we find out the most critical and sensitive parts of an application and we derive set of conditions or assertions among the various diagnostic checkpoint variables and we enhance the processing logic to enable it to detect run-time various operational or environmental faults toward fault tolerant computing. This paper examines how a single-version algorithm can establish software based fault tolerance by designing in thoughtful software based execution-time checks in a computing application. The algorithm developed here relies on various assertions that are derived from the semantics of an application. Various diagnostic assertive checkpoints have been derived based on an application's semantics. This work is not intended to correct bit-errors using conventional error correction codes. Errors have been detected through checkpoints and periodical execution of an application with known test data and verification of observed result with known result thereof. Electrical transients or small particles hitting the circuit, often cause random errors or faults in data and program flow. The manuscript describes an algorithm that allows the detection and recovery of transient or operational failures in software on a specific problem, just by using one version of a software program running on just one machine. This approach does not aim to tolerate software design bugs. This algorithmic approach uses various run-time signatures and validation thereof in order to detect faults.

References

[1]

{1} A. Avizienis, "The N - Version Approach to Fault Tolerant Software," IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, vol. SE-11, December 1985, pp. 1491-1501,.

Digital Library

[2]

{2} Goutam K Saha, "EMP -Fault Tolerant Computing: A New Approach," Journal of Microelectronic Systems Integration, Vol. 5, Number 3, 1997, pp.183-193, Plenum Press, USA.

[3]

{3} Y.N. Shen, H. Kari, S.S. Kim, and F. Lombardi, "Scheduling Policies for Fault Tolerance in a VLSI Processor," in Proc. IEEE Int. Workshop on DFT in VLSI Systems, Montreal, Canada, October 1994, pp. 1-9.

Digital Library

[4]

{4} J.W.S. Liu, W.K. Shih, K.J. Lin, R. Bettati, and J.Y. Chung, "Imprecise Computations," Proc. IEEE, vol. 82, no.1, Jan. 1994, pp. 83-94.

[5]

{5} B. Randell, et al., "Reliability in Computing System Design," ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 10, Number 2, 1985, pp. 374-382.

Digital Library

[6]

{6} Goutam Kumar Saha, "Low-Cost, Fault Tolerance Applications," IEEE Potentials, vol. 24, no. 4, November 2005, pp. 35-39.

[7]

{7} M. Zenha Rela, H. Madeira, J.G. Silva, "Experimental Evaluation of the Fail-Silent Behavior in Programs with Consistency Checks", Proc. FTCS-26, 1996, pp. 394-403.

Digital Library

[8]

{8} K.H. Huang, J.A. Abraham, "Algorithm - Based Fault Tolerance for Matrix Operations," IEEE Trans Computers, Vol 33, Dec 1984, pp. 518-528.

Digital Library

[9]

{9} S. Yau, F. Chen, "An Approach to Concurrent Flow Checking," IEEE Trans on Software Engineering, Vol. SE-6, No. 2, March 1980, pp. 126-137.

Digital Library

[10]

{10} D.K. Pradhan, "Fault-Tolerant Computer System Design", Prentice Hall PTR, 1996.

Digital Library

[11]

{11} Goutam Kumar Saha, "Software Implemented Fault Tolerance Through Data Error Recovery," ACM Ubiquity, Vol. 6 (35), ACM Press, USA, 2005.

Digital Library

[12]

{12} Goutam Kumar Saha, "Transient Fault Tolerance in Mobile Agent Based Computing," INFOCOMP Journal of Computer Science, Vol. 4, no.4, UFLA, Brazil, 2005, pp. 1-11.

[13]

{13} Goutam Kumar Saha, "Fault Tolerance in Web Services," ACM Ubiquity, Vol. 7 (9), ACM Press, USA, 2006.

[14]

{14} Goutam Kumar Saha, "Software Based Fault Tolerant Computing," ACM Ubiquity, Vol. 6 (40), ACM Press, USA, 2005.

Digital Library

[15]

{15} Goutam Kumar Saha, "Transient Software Fault Tolerance Using Single-Version Algorithm," ACM Ubiquity, Vol. 6 (28), ACM Press, USA, 2005.

Digital Library

[16]

{16} Goutam Kumar Saha, "Transient Fault Tolerance Through Recovery," ACM Ubiquity, Vol. 6 (35), ACM Press, USA, 2005.

[17]

{17} Goutam Kumar Saha, "A Software Fix Towards Fault Tolerant Computing," ACM Ubiquity, Vol. 6 (16), ACM Press, USA, 2005.

Digital Library

[18]

{18} Goutam Kumar Saha, "Software Based Fault Tolerant Array," IEEE Potentials, Vol. 25 (1), IEEE Press, USA, 2006.

[19]

{19} Goutam Kumar Saha, "Transient Fault Tolerance Through Algorithms," to appear in IEEE Potentials, USA, 2006.

[20]

{20} D.W. Bradley, C. Ortega-Sanchez and A.M. Tyrrell, "Embryonics + Imunotronics: A Bio-Inspired Approach to Fault Tolerance," In Proceedings of 2nd NASA/DoD Workshop on Evolvable Hardware, July 2000.

Digital Library

[21]

{21} Z. Alkhalifa, V.S.S. Nair, N. Krishnamurthi, J.A. Abraham, "Design and Evaluation of System - Level Checks for On-line Control Flow Error Detection, IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, Vol.10 (6), Jun 1999, pp. 627-641.

Digital Library

[22]

{22} R. Reddy, R. France, G. George, "An Aspect Oriented Approach to Analyzing Dependability Features," Proceedings of the AOM-AOSD, 2005.

Cited By

Hu WCarver JAnu VWalia GBradshaw G(2018)Using human error information for error preventionEmpirical Software Engineering10.1007/s10664-018-9623-823:6(3768-3800)Online publication date: 27-Dec-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10664-018-9623-8
Saha G(2008)Software-Implemented Fault Detection ApproachesUbiquity10.1145/1386853.13761452008:May(1-1)Online publication date: 6-May-2008
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1386853.1376145
Saha G(2008)Software-based, low-cost fault detection for microprocessorsIEEE Potentials10.1109/MPOT.2007.91125627:1(37-41)Online publication date: Jan-2008
https://doi.org/10.1109/MPOT.2007.911256
Show More Cited By

Recommendations

A software fix towards fault-tolerant computing

This article describes a low cost software technique for transient fault detection and fault tolerance in a processing system. The random errors caused by potential transients, Electrical Fast Transients (EFT) can be controlled by this proposed ...
Fault Injection and Dependability Evaluation of Fault-Tolerant Systems

The authors describe a dependability evaluation method based on fault injection that establishes the link between the experimental evaluation of the fault tolerance process and the fault occurrence process. The main characteristics of a fault injection ...
A Fault-Tolerant Systolic Sorter

A fault-tolerant systolic sorter design is proposed. An algorithm-based fault tolerance is achieved by testing the invariants of a systolic sorter during normal operation. Transient and permanent computation errors can be detected by using error-...

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image Ubiquity

Ubiquity Volume 2006, Issue June

June 2006

68 pages

EISSN:1530-2180

DOI:10.1145/1147991

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2006 Author.

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 June 2006

Published in UBIQUITY Volume 2006, Issue June

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Qualifiers

Research-article

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

6
Total Citations
View Citations
2,414
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)320
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)12

Reflects downloads up to 12 Nov 2024

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Hu WCarver JAnu VWalia GBradshaw G(2018)Using human error information for error preventionEmpirical Software Engineering10.1007/s10664-018-9623-823:6(3768-3800)Online publication date: 27-Dec-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10664-018-9623-8
Saha G(2008)Software-Implemented Fault Detection ApproachesUbiquity10.1145/1386853.13761452008:May(1-1)Online publication date: 6-May-2008
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1386853.1376145
Saha G(2008)Software-based, low-cost fault detection for microprocessorsIEEE Potentials10.1109/MPOT.2007.91125627:1(37-41)Online publication date: Jan-2008
https://doi.org/10.1109/MPOT.2007.911256
Saha G(2007)Replicated instruction based fault tolerant computingUbiquity10.1145/1276162.12761652007:June(1-1)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2007
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1276162.1276165
Saha G(2007)Self-healing SoftwareUbiquity10.1145/1232048.12418532007:March(1-1)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2007
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1232048.1241853
Saha G(2006)Software based fault toleranceUbiquity10.1145/1149633.11479952006:July(1-1)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2006
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1149633.1147995

View Options

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

Magazine Site

View this article on the magazine site (external)

Get Access

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Article

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

View Issue’s Table of Contents