Developing High-Level Reliability Languages Using a General Intermediate Domain

This paper presents an improved and generalized version of intermediate language called the failure automaton (FA). By utilizing a common formal semantic domain such as the FA, languages have a precise meaning, the cost of developing and implementing languages is reduced, advances can be more easily shared among languages, and understanding the differences between languages is easier. This new approach to the definition and implementation of reliability modeling languages helps find ambiguity, reduces implementation effort, and allows sharing of language features.