Trading off reliability and performance in a multiprocessor system

摘要

A computer system has a set of processors. Some of the processors may be configured to run in lock step mode or while others run in free step mode as independent processors. Processors may be switched from one mode to the other. The switching may be done dynamically depending on the utilisation of the processors in the different modes. The processors running in lock step may execute the same program. The outputs of the program may be compared to detect errors.