Phrase guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
No pronunciation record was provided for this word.
noun
The dependability of a fault-tolerant (distributed) computer system, where components may fail without perfect information about the state of the components.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable, usually
Topics: computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: BFT
Antonyms: none provided
History
From an essay by American computer scientist Robert Shostak, who simplified the computing problem in a hypothetical siege by the Byzantine Empire. In the siege, a group of Byzantine generals, without central command and physically separated, need to vote to determine whether all troops should besiege the fortress or withdraw. Faults are metaphorized with traitors who could vote selectively and messengers delivering the votes, who could fail to deliver votes or forge them.
Across languages
4 source translations are retained for this English entry.
