SURF-2: A program for dependability evaluation of complex hardware and software systems

Abstract

SURF-2, a software tool for evaluating system dependability, is described. It is especially designed for an evaluation-based system design approach in which multiple design solutions need to be compared from the dependability viewpoint. System behavior may be modeled either by Markov chains or by generalized stochastic Petri nets. The tool supports the evaluation of different measures of dependability, including pointwise measures, asymptotic measures, mean sojourn times and, by superposing a reward structure on the behavior model, reward measures such as expected performance or cost.