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The critical flaw in the Therac-25's software was a race condition, a programming error where the logic depends on the relative timing of multiple threads or processes. In this case, the race condition caused the data entry task to complete before the patient setup task, leading to a misconfiguration of the machine that the software was unable to detect.
Lessons Learned and the Importance of Software Safety
The Therac-25 incidents serve as a sobering reminder of the importance of rigorous software testing and safety design, especially in systems where human lives are at stake.