On building systems that will fail

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On building systems that will fail

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Communications of the ACM archive
Volume 34 , Issue 9 (September 1991) table of contents
Special issue on LISP

Pages: 72 - 81

Year of Publication: 1991

ISSN:0001-0782

Author

Fernando J. Corbató

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge

Publisher

ACM New York, NY, USA

Bibliometrics

Downloads (6 Weeks): 22, Downloads (12 Months): 147, Citation Count: 4

Additional Information:

references cited by index terms review collaborative colleagues

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REFERENCES

Note: OCR errors may be found in this Reference List extracted from the full text article. ACM has opted to expose the complete List rather than only correct and linked references.

	1	Frederick P. Brooks, Jr., No silver bullet: essence and accidents of software engineering, Computer, v.20 n.4, p.10-19, April 1987 [doi>10.1109/MC.1987.1663532]
	2	Corbat6, FJ. Sensitive issues in the design of multi-use systems. Unpublished lecture transcription of Feb. 1968, Project MAC Memo M-383.
	3	Corbat6, F.J., and Clingen, C.T. A managerial view of the Multics system development. In Research Directions in Software Technology, P. Wegner, Ed., M.I.T. Press, 1979. (Also published in Tutorial: Software Management, DJ. Reifer, Ed., IEEE Computer Society Press, 1979; Second Ed., 1981; Third Ed., 1986.)
	4	Corbat6, F.J., Clingen, C.T., and Saltzer, J.H. Multics: The first seven years. In Proceedings of the SJCC (May 1972), pp. 571-583.
	5	Corbatfi, F.J., Daggett, M.M., and Daley, R.C. An experimental timesharing system. In Proceedings of the Spring Joint computer Conference (May 1962).
	6	F. J. Corbató, The Compatible Time-Sharing System: A Programmer's Guide, The MIT Press, 1963
	7	CorbatO, F.J., and Vyssotsky, V.A. Introduction and overview of the Multics system. In Proceedings FJCC (1965).
	8	Daley, R.C. and Neumann, P.G. A general-purpose file system for secondary storage. In Proceedings FJCC (1965).
	9	David, E.E., Jr. and Fano, R.M. Some thoughts about the social implications of accessible computing. In Proceedings FJCC (1965).
	10	Glaser, E.L., Couleur, J.F. and Oliver, G.A. System design of a computer for time-sharing applications. In Proceedings FJCC (1965).
	11	Neumann, P.G., a Multics veteran, has become a major contributor to the literature of computer-related risks. He is the editor of the widelyread network magazine "Risks- Forum," writes the "Inside Risks" column for the CACM, and periodically creates digests in the ACM Software Engineering Notes.
	12	Elliott I. Organick, The Multics System: An Examination of Its Structure, The MIT Press, 1972
	13	Ossanna, J.E, Mikus, L. and Dunten, S.D. Communications and input-output switching in a Multiplex computing system. In Proceedings FJCC (1965).
	14	Parnas, D.L. Software aspects of strategic defense systems. Am. Sci. (Nov. 1985). An excellent critique on the difficulties of producing sohware for large-~ale systems.
	15	Dennis M. Ritchie , Ken Thompson, The UNIX time-sharing system, Communications of the ACM, v.17 n.7, p.365-375, July 1974 [doi>10.1145/361011.361061]
	16	Vyssotsky, V.A., and Corbat6, F.J. Structure of the Multics Supervisor. In Proceedings FJCC, 1965.

CITED BY 4

	Helen Nissenbaum, Computing and accountability, Communications of the ACM, v.37 n.1, p.72-80, Jan. 1994
	Adele E. Howe, Improving the Reliability of Artificial Intelligence Planning Systems by Analyzing their Failure Recovery, IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, v.7 n.1, p.14-25, February 1995
	Robert Schaefer, Deeper questions: the metaproblem of large organizations developing complex systems and the limits of process, ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, v.30 n.4, July 2005
	Peter G. Neumann, System and network trustworthiness in perspective, Proceedings of the 13th ACM conference on Computer and communications security, p.1-5, October 30-November 03, 2006, Alexandria, Virginia, USA

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
C. Computer Systems Organization
C.4 PERFORMANCE OF SYSTEMS
Subjects: Reliability, availability, and serviceability

Additional Classification:
C. Computer Systems Organization
C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS

D. Software
D.4 OPERATING SYSTEMS

K. Computing Milieux
K.6 MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS

General Terms:
Design, Human Factors, Management, Performance, Reliability, Security

REVIEW

"Thomas C. Richards : Reviewer"

All systems will fail. The question is not whether some mishap will happen, but rather what to do when it does occur. In this Turing Award address, Corbato´ examines the problems associated with the development of ambitious or complex sy more...

Collaborative Colleagues:

Fernando J. Corbató: colleagues

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