Method and system for environmentally adaptive fault tolerant computing

• US 20070022318A1
• Filed: 08/12/2005
• Published: 01/25/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/19/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Ramos, Jeremy, Brenner, Dean, Wolfe, Jeffrey, Copenhaver, Jason
• Granted Patent: US 7,840,852 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/11
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/00 Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring error detection, correction or monitoring in information storage based on relative movement between record carrier and transducer G11B20/18; monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing G11B27/36; in static stores G11C29/00

Abstract

A method and system for adapting fault tolerant computing. The method includes the steps of measuring an environmental condition representative of an environment. An on-board processing system'"'"'s sensitivity to the measured environmental condition is measured. It is determined whether to reconfigure a fault tolerance of the on-board processing system based in part on the measured environmental condition. The fault tolerance of the on-board processing system may be reconfigured based in part on the measured environmental condition.

Claims

1. A method of adapting fault tolerant computing, said method comprising the steps of:

measuring an environmental condition representative of an environment;

analyzing an on-board processing system'"'"'s sensitivity to said measured environmental condition; and

determining whether to reconfigure a fault tolerance of said on-board processing system based in part on said measured environmental condition.

2. The invention of claim 1 further comprising the step of reconfiguring said fault tolerance of said on-board processing system based in part on said measured environmental condition.

3. The invention of claim 2 wherein said fault tolerance of said on-board processing system is reconfigured to match said environment.

4. The invention of claim 2 wherein said fault tolerance of said on-board processing system is reconfigured based in part on historical data.

5. The invention of claim 1 wherein said step of measuring said environmental condition occurs during an orbit position of said on-board processing system.

6. The invention of claim 1 wherein said on-board processing system is included in a space borne asset.

7. The invention of claim 1 wherein said step of measuring environmental conditions comprises the step of detecting radiation conditions.

8. The invention of claim 1 wherein said step of measuring said environmental condition comprises monitoring flux of high-energy particles that cause single event upsets.

10. The invention of claim 1 further comprising the step of collecting measurements of an alarm in response to said environmental condition on a space born spacecraft.

11. The invention of claim 1 wherein said step of collecting measurements of an environmental condition further comprises the step of

sensing proton and heavy-ion fluxes in space.

12. The invention of claim 1 further comprising the step of operating said on-board processing system in a plurality of operational modes.

13. The invention of claim 1 wherein said on-board processing system comprises a COTS processor.

14. The invention of claim 1 further comprising the step of

generating a particle flux prediction based in part on said collected measurements of said environmental condition.

15. The invention of claim 1 wherein said step of

determining whether to reconfigure said fault tolerance of said on-board processing system based in part on said measured environmental condition further comprises the step of

predicting a near future threat of said system.

9. The invention of claim I further comprising an alarm suite, said suite providing an alarm signal representative of an environment threat.

16. A system for environmentally adaptive fault tolerant computing, said system comprising:

a sensor that senses a characteristic of a dynamic environment and generates an output signal based on said characteristic;

a system configuration controller that receives said output signal, said controller assessing a potential environmental threat to an availability of said system based in part on said output signal; and

a computing device that receives an input from said controller

wherein a configuration of said computing device is adapted to effectively mitigate said potential environmental threat to said system'"'"'s availability.

17. The invention of claim 16 wherein said environmental sensor comprises an environmental sensor suite.

18. The invention of claim 16 wherein said sensor senses radiation conditions.

19. The invention of claim 16 wherein said computing device is a payload computer system.

20. The invention of claim 16 wherein said controller assessing said potential environmental threat to said availability of said system based in part on said input and also in part on previously measured environmental conditions.

21. The invention of claim 16 wherein said controller operates in a plurality of operational modes.

22. The invention of claim 16 wherein said controller comprises a COTS processor.