A preliminary transient-fault experiment on the SIFT computer system

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a preliminary experiment to study the effectiveness of a fault-tolerant system's ability to handle transient faults. The primary goal of the experiment was to develop the techniques to measure the parameters needed for a reliability analysis of the SIFT computer system which includes th effects of transient faults. A key aspect of such an analysis is the determination of the effectiveness of the operating system's ability to discriminate between transient and permanent faults. A detailed description of the preliminary transient fault experiment along with the results from 297 transient fault injections are given. Although not enough data was obtained to draw statistically significant conclusions, the foundation has been laid for a large-scale transient fault experiment