Race Condition: The Lethal Logic of the Therac-25 Glitch

In the mid-1980s, the Therac-25 was hailed as the future of cancer treatment. A computer-controlled radiation therapy machine, it replaced physical safety interlocks with software logic. But a microscopic "e;race condition"e; in the code-a millisecond timing error-caused the machine to deliver massive, lethal overdoses of radiation to unsuspecting patients. This book provides a haunting forensic...