Drawing on classes he taught at the U. of Virginia, Knight shows software and computer engineers (as well as undergraduate and graduate students) in fields requiring ultra-high levels of dependability, such as avionics, medical devices, automotive electronics, weapon systems, and advanced information systems how to construct software systems that are dependable and within budget and time constraints. He presents a comprehensive dependability-engineering process and summarizes key techniques and their role, and covers the systems engineering aspects of dependability that software engineers need for understanding the software and its role. He provides a framework for decision making about software and its dependability and an approach to achieving it, and discusses fault types, dealing with and identifying them; issues with degradation faults; fault avoidance, elimination, and tolerance; and dependability assessment. Background and knowledge of high-level language programming, computer organization, elementary probability theory, discrete mathematics, the basics of operating systems, and the principles of software engineering is assumed. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)