Author(s)

J.R. Borer

Abstract

Software for emergency shut down systems J.R. Borer Department of Mechanical Engineering, Brunei University, 1. BACKGROUND. The consequences of systematic software errors or 'bugs' in safety critical software can be catastrophic, and there is increasing anxiety concerning such software, particularly in the Nuclear industry. Following the Piper Alpha disaster and publication of the report of the inquiry, the causes of this anxiety can be seen to be equally relevant to the offshore industry. The fundamental cause is acknowledged to be almost total inability to discover systematic software errors by testing, and consequential lack of any viable certification process for software, in contrast to hardware systems. Project specific software for emergency shut down (ESD) systems in nuclear, petroleum and process industries embodies logic relating states of large numbers of detection devices to requi

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