1 A Tight Lower Bound for Processor Coordination.- 1 Introduction.- 2 Overview.- 3 The Problem.- 4 The Bermuda Triangle.- 5 The Lower Bound.- 6 Generalizing to the Partially Synchronous Model.- References.- 2 Self-Stabilizing Real-Time Decision Systems.- 1 Introduction.- 2 Related Work.- 3 A Model of Computation.- 4 Definitions and Notation.- 5 Terminating Self-Stabilizing Programs.- 6 Boolean (Finite State) Programs.- 7 Non-Terminating Self-Stabilizing Programs.- 8 Self-Stabilization and Informed Decisions.- 9 Acknowledgements.- References.- 3 Management and Scheduling of Tests for Locating Failures Dependent Upon Operation-Time in Responsive Systems.- 1 Introduction.- 2 Definitions and Notation.- 3 Assignment and Scheduling of Multiple Test Sets.- 4 The Analysis of Fault Location.- 5 A priori information analysis.- 6 Conclusion.- References.- 4 Adding Robustness in Dynamic Preemptive Scheduling.- 1 Introduction.- 2 Terminology and Assumptions.- 3 Schedulability analysis.- 4 The RED scheduling strategy.- 5 Performance Evaluation.- 6 Related Work.- 7 Conclusions.- References.- 5 Static Deadlock Analysis for CSP-Type Communications.- 1 Introduction.- 2 The Sequence Condition.- References.- 6 Comparing How Well Asynchronous Atomic Broadcast Protocols Perform.- 1 Introduction.- 2 Assumptions.- 3 Overview of Broadcast Protocols.- 4 Simulation Results.- 5 Relative Performance.- 6 Conclusion.- References.- 7 Hard Real-Time Reliable Multicast in the Dedos System.- 1 Introduction.- 2 System architecture and failure assumptions.- 3 Protocol description.- 4 Protocol analysis.- 5 Conclusion.- References.- 8 Speculative Algorithms for Concurrency Control in Responsive Databases.- 1 Introduction.- 2 RTDBMS Concurrency Control.- 3 A Generic SCC-nS Algorithm.- 4 SCC-NS Family Members.- 5 Conclusion.- References.- 9 Autonomous Transaction Managers in Responsive Computing.- 1 Introduction.- 2 System Structure and Notation.- 3 Synchronization of the Local Schedules.- 4 Effects of Transaction Aborts.- 5 Synchronization of CSR Schedules.- 6 A Pragmatic Restriction.- 7 Further Observations.- 8 Conclusions.- 9 Appendix.- References.- 10 Adaptable Fault Tolerance for Real-Time Systems.- 1 Introduction.- 2 The Three-level Framework.- 3 FERT Specification Language.- 4 Support for Scheduling.- 5 Conclusions and Discussion.- References.- 11 Fault-Tolerant Automatic Control.- 1 Introduction to the Software Fault-Tolerance Problem.- 2 The Simplex Architecture.- 3 Laboratory Experiments.- 4 Conclusion.- References.- 12 Design and Performance Evaluation of A Fault-Tolerant, Hard-Real-Time, Parallel Processor.- 1 Introduction.- 2 FTPP Overview.- 3 Overview of FTPP Scheduling.- 4 OS Performance Measurements.- 5 NE Contention Model.- 6 Conclusions.- References.

Responsive Computer Systems: Steps Towards Fault-Tolerant Real-Time Systems provides an extensive treatment of the most important issues in the design of modern Responsive Computer Systems. It lays the groundwork for a more comprehensive model that allows critical design issues to be treated in ways that more traditional disciplines of computer research have inhibited. It breaks important ground in the development of a fruitful, modern perspective on computer systems as they are currently developing and as they may be expected to develop over the next decade.
Audience: An interesting and important road map to some of the most important emerging issues in computing, suitable as a secondary text for graduate level courses on responsive computer systems and as a reference for industrial practitioners.