The 3B20D Processor & DMERT Operating System: Field Administration Subsystems

An integral part of high-reliability applications of the Duplex Multiple Environment Real Time (DMERT) operating system is the administration of system hardware information and of software. This includes both the initial delivery of the system as well as subsequent upgrades. In DMERT 1 there are three commonly used capabilities to apply, track, and administer such changes. These are Recent Change/ Verify, Field Update, and System Update. They are listed in this order according to decreasing frequency of field use and increasing impact (typically) on the overall system. Each of these capabilities is designed to permit display of some aspect of the current status of the system, to change that status in a simplified and highly reliable way, and to either reverse such changes or make them permanently a part of the system. This article discusses each in turn, and provides examples of their use. Each capability may form the base for an application-dependent version of its function. These functions are discussed briefly in the rest of this introduction. 323