A highly reliable fault-tolerant microprocessor system for industrial process control

Abstract

In this paper, researches have been carried out on how to improve microprocessor system reliability using fault tolerant theory and technique. A kind of three module redundant fault-tolerant microprocessor system structure has been proposed which can mask both transient fault and permanent fault. This fault-tolerant system has been realized in hardware using microcontroller 80c552 as core. The fault-tolerant system consists of three functional modules with the same hardware and a fault-masking network. The three modules are alternative in function and the fault-masking network is used for fault-detection and fault-tolerance. The fault-tolerant microprocessor system has been applied in robotization automatic drilling machine and as the main control unit which executes key tasks. Its powerful fault-tolerance and high reliability have been proved by practice.