Safety-critical systems, in the sense of software-based systems used in safety critical applications, are 'high-tech'. They are products of modern technology. Their effective, efficient and safe functioning depends not only on the devel opment of the right technologies but also on the right use of them. The safety of a system may be compromised not only by faults in the system but also by the use in the first place of an unreliable, unsafe, or unproved technology in its development. The key to the development and use of both technologies and systems is the human being. Until recently, the...

The contributions to this book are the invited papers presented at the fifth annual Safety-critical Systems Symposium. They cover a broad spectrum of issues affecting safety, from a philosophical appraisal to technology transfer, from requirements analysis to assessment, from formal methods to artificial intelligence and psychological aspects. They touch on a number of industry sectors, but are restricted to none, for the essence of the event is the transfer of lessons and technologies between sectors. All address practical issues and of fer useful information and advice. Contributions from...

This book contains the Proceedings of the 6th Safety-critical Systems Sympo sium, the theme of which is Industrial Perspectives. In accordance with the theme, all of the chapters have been contributed by authors having an industrial af filiation. The first two chapters reflect half-day tutorials - Managing a Safety-critical System Development Project and Principles of Safety Management - held on the first day of the event, and the following 15 are contributed by the presenters of papers on the next two days. Following the tutorials, the chapters fa l into five sub-themes - the session titles...

0 e This is the proceedings of the first annual symposium of the Safety-critical Systems Club (The Watershed Media Centre, Bristol, 9-11 February 1993), which provided a forum for exploring and discussing ways of achieving safety in computer systems to be used in safety-critical industrial applications. The book is divided into three parts, which correspond with the themes of the three days of the symposium. The first - Experience from Around Europe - brings together information on developments in safety-critical systems outside the UK. The second - Current Research -...

The programme for the Second Safety-critical Systems Symposium was planned to examine the various aspects of technology currently employed in the design of safety-critical systems, as well as to emphasise the importance of safety and risk management in their design and operation. assessment There is an even balance of contributions from academia and industry. Thus, industry is given the opportunity to express its views of the safety-critical domain and at the same time offered a glimpse of the technologies which are currently under development and which, if successful, will be available in...

The Safety-Critical Systems Symposium is now established as the major UK conference on safety-critical systems. The book contains a broad selection of papers on the most relevant and up-to-date topics offering information not only to industry on new technologies, but also to academia on industrial techniques such as risk assessment and safety analysis.
The book covers a wide range of relevant subjects from collaborative projects and strategic views through to new technologies from the fields of neural networking, artificial intelligence, formal methods and robotics. Also covered are the...

Current Issues in Safety-Critical Systems contains the invited papers presented at the eleventh annual Safety-critical Systems Symposium, held in February 2003. The safety-critical systems domain is rapidly expanding and its industrial problems are always candidates for academic research. It embraces almost all industry sectors; current issues in one are commonly appropriate to others. The Safety-critical System Symposium provides an annual forum for discussing such issues. The papers contained within this volume cover a broad range of subjects. They represent a great deal of industrial...

Dependability has always been an vital attribute of operational systems, regardless of whether they are highly-specialised (like electricity generating plants) or more general-purpose (like domestic appliances). This volume provides a highly-readable overview of the topic, concentrating on dependability as a life-cycle management issue rather than as a technical subject. Specifically avoiding technical language and complex mathematics, it is designed to be accessible to readers at all levels. It will be of particular interest to project managers and software engineers in industries where...