| A multiprocessor system is a system that has more than one interconnected microprocessor. The major design goals of any multiprocessor system are to allow computing power to be distributed between different microprocessor for redundancy, speed, modularity, or to simplify coding. One of the drawbacks of a multiprocessor system is that the entire system may not function properly if one of the microprocessor fails. Generally, a lengthy downtime of a failed microprocessor is unacceptable in most commercial and industrial applications. In order to allow the multiprocessor system to continue to operate in the presence of faults, additional software and hardware components must be added into the system to make it a fault tolerance system.; In this thesis, the hardware and software components of a simple and reliable fault tolerance multiprocessor system are described. Recent research indicates that the human immune system exhibits similar characteristics to that of a fault tolerance system. Therefore, the fault tolerant multiprocessor system is developed based on the major components and properties of human immune system.; The hardware components are developed using multiple Microchip PIC microcontrollers connected in ring architecture with centralized external storage memory for process data backup. The software component is written in C, simulated using MPLAB, and tested on a multiprocessor hardware platform.*; *This dissertation is a compound document (contains both a paper copy and a CD as part of the dissertation). |
