Operating systems and fault-tolerance

Abstract

The key to constructing fault-tolerant software is managing the extra complexity through the use of appropriate programming paradigms, abstractions, and system structuring techniques. While significant progress has been made in these areas, it is clear that additional work is required to bring the level of software sophistication in this area up to that found elsewhere. This is a problem not just for the new hardware architectures that are now coming into play, but also for current hardware architectures. However, no matter what advances are made, the inherent complications induced by the need to worry about failures will always make the design, implementation, and verification of fault-tolerant systems more complex than other systems.