The architecture and the fault-treatment of MUTEAM

A multimicroprocessor prototype, called MuTEAM, is presented. Its architecture is oriented to the exploitation of decentralized control policies for both error treatment and resource management. The hardware architecture is composed by a set of clusters, each cluster comprising a tightly coupled multiprocessor. Within a cluster, specialized hardware is provided for memory protection and management, and for interprocessor communication. The kernel implements the run-time support for a CSP-like, message-based concurrent programming language. The prototype includes a set of fault tolerance mechanisms, inserted in the system programming language and run-time support, and in the hardware configuration. These are being used to develop a fault treatment policy, consisting of separate phases of diagnosis, reconfiguration and recovery. All of these are executed by sets of parallel processes, without a supervisor entity. In particular,diagnosis is provided by a set of dedicated processes, one running in each computer element, while reconfiguration and recovery are obtained through proper organization of the application code.