Reliability Specification The importance of accurate and clearly specified product requirements can not be overstated. The reliability specification is usually part of a larger document, called the product specification or product requirements document. This document contains information such as the product description, performance specifications, environmental requirements, electrical interface specifications, physical specifications and reliability specifications. Because the definition of reliability depends on the various product specifications, including the reliability requirements, it is important that they are well understood and properly stated in the product specification. Nothing should be left to interpretation or to be assumed by the reader, unless it is a legitimate …
High-Availability Systems
Hardware Availability is a function of hardware reliability and the maintainability/serviceability features of that hardware. The principle way of achieving availability goals is to first achieve the reliability goals. This is the most cost-effective way for both the producer and customer to achieve these goals. However, even with the best design and manufacturing practices, random failures will still occur in complex systems. Some of these will result in system outages for a simple non redundant configuration. Service then becomes extremely important in limiting the system downtime to a small period of time. Again, the key to achieving high-availability is to increase the reliability of the system as much as reasonably possible in a cost-effective manner. This requires a two phase …
