A Quick Pessimistic Diagnosis Algorithm for Hypercube-Like Multiprocessor Systems under the PMC Model

Abstract

Processor fault diagnosis is an essential subject for the reliability of a multiprocessor system. The precise strategy and the pessimistic strategy are two classical diagnostic strategies which are based on the well-known PMC model. The precise strategy problem of fault diagnosis is discussed widely and demands that all processors be identified correctly, specifically that all fault-free processors are identified as "fault free” and all faulty processors are identified as "faulty.” The pessimistic diagnosis strategy is a process to diagnose faults that allows all faulty processors to be isolated within a set that contains at most one fault-free processor. In this paper, we study the pessimistic diagnosis strategy under the PMC model for hypercube-like multiprocessor systems. The contribution is to propose an efficient pessimistic diagnosis algorithm for hypercube-like multiprocessor systems. If we denote by N the total number of processors in the hypercube-like system to be diagnosed, the algorithm can run in O(N) time.