ECE 257A: Information on Previous Offerings
Behrooz Parhami: 2007/06/19
|| E-mail: parhami@ece.ucsb.edu ||
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On
June 19, 2007, Professor Parhami's UCSB ECE website moved to a new location. For
an up-to-date version of this page, visit it at the new address:
http://www.ece.ucsb.edu/~parhami/ece_257a_old.htm
Previous offerings of the course
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ECE 257A: Fall Quarter 1998 offering
Course: |
ECE
257A – Fault-Tolerant Computing, University of California, Santa
Barbara, Fall 1998, Enrollment Code 49858 |
Instructor: |
Behrooz
Parhami, Room 5155 Engineering I, Phone
805-893-3211, parhami@ece.ucsb.edu
|
Meetings: |
MW
4:00-5:30, Room 1431 Phelps Hall |
Consultation: |
Open
office hours, held in Room 5155 Engineering I – M 3:00-3:50, W
1:00-1:50, R 9:00-9:50 |
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 products 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
digital system design at the level of ECE 152A/B and, preferably, ECE 154.
|
References: |
Reader
– Portions of two out-of-print textbooks will be reproduced as the
main reference for the course. We are now awaiting permission from the
publishers.
Journals
– 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 Symp. on Fault-Tolerant Computing (FTCS, annual, since 1971),
Pacific Rim Int’l Symp. Fault-Tolerant Systems (PRFTS, odd years, since
1991), Conf. on Computer Assurance (COMPASS), IFIP Int’l Working Conf.
Dependable Computing for Critical Applications (DCCA). |
Evaluation: |
Students
will be evaluated based on these four components with the given weights:
|
|
20%
-- Homework assigned on Wed. 9/30, 10/14, 11/4, 11/18, each due in
12 days. |
|
25%
-- Closed-book midterm, Wed. 10/28, 4:00-6:00 (covers material up
to errors). |
|
10%
-- Poster presentation of research project, Wed. 12/2, 4:00-6:00,
in class. |
|
45%
-- Written research report, due by 4:00 pm on Wed. 12/9.
|
Research: |
A
research paper or term project is required. Subject to be finalized by
Wed. 10/21. Preliminary title,
abstract, and reference list are due on Wed. 11/11. Final title and
references are due on Wed. 11/25. Complete paper is due on Wed. 12/9 by 4:00 pm. All
deadlines are firm. |
Lecture
plan:
Lectures
have been scheduled as follows:
M
09/28 Introduction
& motivation |
W
09/30
Dependability measures
|
M
10/05 Combinational
modeling |
W 10/07 State-space
modeling
|
M
10/12 Defect
avoidance/circumvention |
W 10/14 Fault
testing
|
M
10/19 Fault masking |
W 10/21 Error
detection
|
M
10/26 Error correction |
W 10/28 MIDTERM
EXAM
|
M
11/02 Malfunction
diagnosis |
W 11/04 Malfunction
tolerance
|
M
11/09 Degradation
allowance/management |
W 11/11 Failure
confinement/recovery
|
M
11/16 Self-checking
modules |
W 11/18 Reconfiguration
& voting
|
M
11/23 Algorithm design
methods |
W 11/25 Agreement
& adjudication
|
M
11/30 Software
redundancy |
W 12/02 Research
poster session
|
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