It is currently quite easy for students or designers/engineers to find very general books on the various aspects of safety, reliability and dependability of computer system architectures, and partial treatments of the elements that comprise an effective system architecture. It is not so easy to find a single source reference for all these aspects of system design. However, the purpose of this book is to present, in a single volume, a full description of all the constraints (including legal contexts around performance, reliability norms, etc.) and examples of architectures from various fields of application, including: railways, aeronautics, space, automobile and industrial automation. The content of the book is drawn from the experience of numerous people who are deeply immersed in the design and delivery (from conception to test and validation), safety (analysis of safety: FMEA, HA, etc.) and evaluation of critical systems. The involvement of real world industrial applications is handled in such as a way as to avoid problems of confidentiality, and thus allows for the inclusion of new, useful information (photos, architecture plans/schematics, real examples).

It is currently quite easy for students or designers/engineers tofind very general books on the various aspects of safetyreliability and dependability of computer system architectures, andpartial treatments of the elements that comprise an effectivesystem architecture. It is not so easy to find a single sourcereference for all these aspects of system design. However, thepurpose of this book is to present, in a single volume, a fulldescription of all the constraints (including legal contexts aroundperformance, reliability norms, etc.) and examples of architecturesfrom various fields of application, including: railwaysaeronautics, space, automobile and industrial automation.The content of the book is drawn from the experience of numerouspeople who are deeply immersed in the design and delivery (fromconception to test and validation), safety (analysis of safety:FMEA, HA, etc.) and evaluation of critical systems. The involvementof real world industrial applications is handled in such as a wayas to avoid problems of confidentiality, and thus allows for theinclusion of new, useful information (photos, architectureplans/schematics, real examples).