A Comparison of Fault-Tolerant and Externally Redundant Computers,
Abstract
The reliability of fault-tolerant and externally redundant computers is compared with reference to long-duration space missions. Technology, computer performance, and reliability assumptions are equal for all configurations. It is then found that the postulated fault-tolerant computer requires about four times the resources of an equivalent simplex design. An active and spares configuration and a voting configuration of four simplex computers are compared to the fault-tolerant computer. For mission durations of three years or longer the fault-tolerant design has a significant reliability advantage. For five-year missions the reliabilities are as follows: Fault-tolerant 0.9530, Active and spares 0.4920, Voting 0.1918. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 25, 1974
- Accession Number
- AD0777166
Entities
People
- H. Hecht
Organizations
- The Aerospace Corporation