Fault-Tolerant Systems

There are many applications in which the reliability of the overall system must be far higher than the reliability of its individual components. In such cases, designers devise mechanisms and architectures that allow the system to either completely mask the effects of a component failure or recover from it so quickly that the application is not seriously affected. This is the work of fault-tolerant designers and their work is increasingly important and complex not only because of the increasing number of “mission critical” applications, but also because the diminishing reliability of hardware means that even systems for non-critical applications will need to be designed with fault-tolerance in mind. Reflecting the real-world challenges faced by designers of these systems, this book addresses fault tolerance design with a systems approach to both hardware and software. No other text on the market takes this approach, nor offers the comprehensive and up-to-date treatment Koren and Krishna provide. Students, designers and architects of high performance processors will value this comprehensive overview of the field. * The first book on fault tolerance design with a systems approach * Comprehensive coverage of both hardware and software fault tolerance, as well as information and time redundancy * Incorporated case studies highlight six different computer systems with fault-tolerance techniques implemented in their design * Available to lecturers is a complete ancillary package including online solutions manual for instructors and PowerPoint slides Much as we hate to admit it, most prototyping practice lacks a sophisticated understanding of the broad concepts of prototyping—and its strategic position within the development process. Often we overwhelm with a high fidelity prototype that designs us into a corner. Or, we can underwhelm with a prototype with too much ambiguity and flexibility to be of much use in the software development process.

This book will help software makers—developers, designers, and architects—build effective prototypes every time: prototypes that convey enough information about the product at the appropriate time and thus set expectations appropriately.

This practical, informative book will help anyone—whether or not one has artistic talent, access to special tools, or programming ability—to use good prototyping style, methods, and tools to build prototypes and manage for effective prototyping.

Features
* A prototyping process with guidelines, templates, and worksheets;
* Overviews and step-by-step guides for 9 common prototyping techniques;
* An introduction with step-by-step guidelines to a variety of prototyping tools that do not require advanced artistic skills;
* Templates and other resources used in the book available on the Web for reuse;
* Clearly-explained concepts and guidelines;
* Full-color illustrations, and examples from a wide variety of prototyping processes, methods, and tools.

Jonathan Arnowitz is a principal user experience designer at SAP Labs and is the co-editor-in-chief of Interactions Magazine. Most recently Jonathan was a senior user experience designer at Peoplesoft. He is a member of the SIGCHI executive committee, and was a founder of DUX, the first ever joint conference of ACM SIGCHI, ACM SIGGRAPH, AIGA Experience Design Group, and STC.

Michael Arent is the manager of user experience design at SAP Labs, and has previously held positions at Peoplesoft, Inc, Adobe Systems, Inc, Sun Microsystems, and Apple Computer, Inc. He holds several U.S. patents.

Nevin Berger is design director at Ziff Davis Media. Previously he was a senior interaction designer at Oracle Corporation and Peoplesoft, Inc., and has held creative director positions at ZDNet, World Savings, and OFOTO, Inc.

* A prototyping process with guidelines, templates, and worksheets;

* Overviews and step-by-step guides for 9 common prototyping techniques;

* An introduction with step-by-step guidelines to a variety of prototyping tools that do not require advanced artistic skills;

* Templates and other resources used in the book available on the Web for reuse;

* Clearly-explained concepts and guidelines;

* Full-color illustrations, and examples from a wide variety of prototyping processes, methods, and tools.

* www.mkp.com/prototyping Effective Prototyping for Software Makers is a practical, informative resource that will help anyonewhether or not one has artistic talent, access to special tools, or programming abilityto use good prototyping style, methods, and tools to build prototypes and manage for effective prototyping. This book features a prototyping process with guidelines, templates, and worksheets; overviews and step-by-step guides for nine common prototyping techniques; an introduction with step-by-step guidelines to a variety of prototyping tools that do not require advanced artistic skills; templates and other resources used in the book available on the Web for reuse; clearly-explained concepts and guidelines; and full-color illustrations and examples from a wide variety of prototyping processes, methods, and tools. This book is an ideal resource for usability professionals and interaction designers; software developers, web application designers, web designers, information architects, information and industrial designers. * A prototyping process with guidelines, templates, and worksheets;* Overviews and step-by-step guides for 9 common prototyping techniques;* An introduction with step-by-step guidelines to a variety of prototyping tools that do not require advanced artistic skills;* Templates and other resources used in the book available on the Web for reuse;* Clearly-explained concepts and guidelines;* Full-color illustrations, and examples from a wide variety of prototyping processes, methods, and tools. * (http://www.mkp.com/prototyping) www.mkp.com/prototyping There are many applications in which the reliability of the overall system must be far higher than the reliability of its individual components. In such cases, designers devise mechanisms and architectures that allow the system to either completely mask the effects of a component failure or recover from it so quickly that the application is not seriously affected. This is the work of fault-tolerant designers and their work is increasingly important and complex not only because of the increasing number of?mission critical{u0094} applications, but also because the diminishing reliability of hardware means that even systems for non-critical applications will need to be designed with fault-tolerance in mind. Reflecting the real-world challenges faced by designers of these systems, this book addresses fault tolerance design with a systems approach to both hardware and software. No other text on the market takes this approach, nor offers the comprehensive and up-to-date treatment Koren and Krishna provide. Students, designers and architects of high performance processors will value this comprehensive overview of the field. * The first book on fault tolerance design with a systems approach * Comprehensive coverage of both hardware and software fault tolerance, as well as information and time redundancy * Incorporated case studies highlight six different computer systems with fault-tolerance techniques implemented in their design * Available to lecturers is a complete ancillary package including online solutions manual for instructors and PowerPoint slides Fault-Tolerant Systems is the first book on fault tolerance design with a systems approach to both hardware and software. No other text on the market takes this approach, nor offers the comprehensive and up-to-date treatment that Koren and Krishna provide. This book incorporates case studies that highlight six different computer systems with fault-tolerance techniques implemented in their design. A complete ancillary package is available to lecturers, including online solutions manual for instructors and PowerPoint slides. Students, designers, and architects of high performance processors will value this comprehensive overview of the field. The first book on fault tolerance design with a systems approach Comprehensive coverage of both hardware and software fault tolerance, as well as information and time redundancy Incorporated case studies highlight six different computer systems with fault-tolerance techniques implemented in their design Available to lecturers is a complete ancillary package including online solutions manual for instructors and PowerPoint slides The mixture of hardware and software discussions in the book is appealing. The authors describe the theory behind designing and modelling systems against failures in their components. There is a brief coverage of coding theory. This is a subject on which ample numbers of books have been dedicated. The text explains enough elementary theory to motivate subsequent forays into understanding redundancy in software systems. Note too that at the hardware level, it is not just a single fault tolerant computer that is covered. Another important subtopic is message routing. And how this can be done in a network even if some routers fail, or are overloaded. One example, which you don't see everyday, is of a hypercube and how to route between nodes when some intermediate nodes time out. For readers interested only in hardware exor software, the book furnishes a good introduction. With the possible benefit that you can compare analysis across hardware and software. You might later want to consult more advanced books closer to your interest.