Fault tolerant signal processing machine and method

摘要

The machine includes a plurality of processors each performing identical linear processing operations on its input signal. At least one checksum processor is provided to perform the same linear processing operation as the plurality of processors. Computing apparatus using inexact arithmetic forms a linear combination of the input signals to form an input checksum signal and for operating on the input checksum signal with the checksum processor to generate a processed input checksum signal. The same linear combination of the outputs of the plurality of processors is formed to produce an output checksum signal and the output checksum signal is compared with the processed input checksum signal to produce an error syndrome. A generalized likelihood ratio test is formed from the error syndrome for assessing a likeliest failure hypothesis. The fault tolerant multiprocessor architecture exploits computational redundancy to provide a very high level of fault tolerance with a small amount of hardware redundancy. The architecture uses weighted checksum techniques, and is suited for linear, digital, or analog signal processing.