ECE 257A: Fault-Tolerant Computing

Course: ECE 257A – Fault-Tolerant Computing, University of California, Santa Barbara, Fall 2006, Enrollment Code 49585 Catalog entry: 257A. Fault-Tolerant Computing. (4) PARHAMI. Prerequisite: ECE 154. Lecture, 4 hours. Basic concepts of dependable computing. Reliability of nonredundant and redundant systems. Dealing with circuit-level defects. Logic-level fault testing and tolerance. Error detection and correction. Diagnosis and reconfiguration for system-level malfunctions. Degradation management. Failure modeling and risk assessment. (F) Instructor: Behrooz Parhami, Room 5155 Harold Frank Hall (Engr I), Phone 805-893-3211, [email protected] Meetings: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:00-11:30 AM, Phelps 1431 Consultation: Open office hours, held in Room 5155 Harold Frank Hall (Engr I) – Tuesdays 11:30-1:00, Thursdays 8:30-10:00 Motivation: Dependability concerns are integral parts of engineering design. Ideally, we would like our computer systems to be perfect, always yielding timely and correct results. However, just as bridges collapse and airplanes crash occasionally, so too computer hardware and software cannot be made totally immune to unpredictable behavior. Despite great strides in component reliability and programming methodology, the exponentially increasing complexity of integrated circuits and software systems makes the design of prefect computer systems nearly impossible. In this course, we study the causes of computer system failures (impairments to dependability), techniques for ensuring correct and timely computations despite such impairments, and tools for evaluating the quality of proposed or implemented solutions. Prerequisites: Basic computer architecture at the level of ECE 154. References: Required textbook – None (class handout or reference will be provided before each lecture) Other useful books, not required – Pradhan, D.K. (ed.), Fault-Tolerant Computer System Design, Prentice-Hall, 1996. [out of print, as of 9/2006] Siewiorek, D.P. and R.S. Swarz, Reliable Computer Systems: Design and Evaluation, Digital Press, 2nd ed., 1992. Johnson, B.W., Design and Analysis of Fault-Tolerant Digital Systems, Addison-Wesley, 1989. Lala, P.K., Self-checking and Fault-Tolerant Digital Design, Morgan Kaufmann, 2001. Shooman, M.L., Reliability of Computer Systems and Networks, Wiley, 2002 Journals – IEEE Trans. Dependable and Secure Systems (new, since 2004), IEEE Trans. Computers, IEEE Trans. Reliability, IEEE Trans. Software Engineering, ACM Trans. Computer Systems, and Information Processing Letters. Also, IEEE Computer, IEEE Micro, IEEE Design & Test of Computers, and ACM Computing Surveys are good sources for broad introductory papers. Conferences – Int’l Conf. Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN, annual, since 1971; formerly known as FTCS), Pacific Rim Int’l Symp. Dependable Computing (PRDC, since 1989), IFIP Int’l Working Conf. Dependable Computing for Critical Applications (DCCA; discontinued and merged with FTCS to form DSN), Int'l Symp. Software Reliability Engineering (ISSRE, annual, since 1990). Electronic resources at UCSB – Journals and conference proceedings listed above, as well as many other useful references, can be accessed electronically via: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/eresources/databases/ (electronic journals, collections, etc.) http://www.library.ucsb.edu/subjects/engineering/ece.html (research guide in ECE)