Analysis of Techniques in the Assessment of Ultra-Reliable Computerized Systems

standardization committees for life-critical computer applications, and the current state-of-art in techniques to provide and assess them. In this paper we make a quick review of the best suited methodologies for each phase of the system life-cycle. We argue that the traditional view, which distinguishes between the behaviour of hardware and software components, should be clarified by separating the logical activities in the specification and in the design phases, which can be related both to hardware and to software, and the physical defects and operation stress, which only affect hardware.