Patent US 5,598,529

This invention includes a consensus protocol, a broadcast protocol and a fault tolerant computer system created by using the two protocols together in combination. The protocols and system use the minimum number of processors to create a system tolerant of concurrent processor crash and byzantine failures. The protocols are subject to certain validity conditions. The system in the state of consensus is guaranteed to have all non-faulty processors in agreement as to what action the system should take. The system and protocols can tolerate up to t total number of processor failures, no more than b of which may fail in the byzantine mode.