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Object

Therac-25

A Therac-25, a white cylindrical radiation therapy machine with a circular opening and control panel, stands against a dark background.

A computer-controlled radiation therapy machine built by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited in the early 1980s. Eleven units were installed in hospitals across the United States and Canada. Between 1985 and 1987 a software race condition caused at least six massive overdoses, three of them fatal. The machine was withdrawn from service in 1987 and is now the canonical case study in safety-critical software engineering.

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