Report Number: CSL-TR-77-132
Institution: Stanford University, Computer Systems Laboratory
Title: Manual for a general purpose simulator used to evaluate reliability of digital systems
Author: Thompson, Peter A.
Date: August 1977
Abstract: A simulation technique has been developed for the reliability evaluation of arbitrarily defined computer systems. The main simulation program is written in FORTRAN IV, and requires no changes to simulate many different systems. The user defines a model for a particular system by supplying a set of short FORTRAN subroutines, and a specially formatted block of numerical parameters. The subroutines specify the functional behavior of various subsystems comprising the model, while the numerical parameters describe how the subsystems are interconnected, their time delays what faults occur in each one, etc. The main simulation program uses this model to perform a Monte-Carlo type evaluation of the systems' reliability. This report supplements a basic description of the technique by supplying all the details necessary for writing subroutines, specifying numerical parameters, and using the main simulation program. The simulation is event-driven, and automatically generates pseudo-random faults and time delays according to parameters given by the user. Some problems typical of event simulators, such as ambiguities arising from random time-delay generation, can be solved by taking advantage of special facilities built into the simulation package. A complete source listing of the main program is included for reference.
http://i.stanford.edu/pub/cstr/reports/csl/tr/77/132/CSL-TR-77-132.pdf