Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!crdgw1!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!samsung!cg-atla!felleman From: felleman@cg-atla.agfa.com (John Felleman) Newsgroups: comp.software-eng Subject: Re: Cost of Embedded Software Message-ID: <9024@cg-atla.agfa.com> Date: 25 Jul 90 22:20:29 GMT References: <30.UUL1.3#913@acw.UUCP> <1778@cs.rit.edu> Reply-To: felleman@cg-atla.UUCP (John Felleman) Organization: Agfa Compugraphic Division Lines: 29 In article <1778@cs.rit.edu> mjl@cs.rit.edu (Lutz Mike J) writes: >In article <30.UUL1.3#913@acw.UUCP> guthery@acw.UUCP (Scott Guthery) writes: >>I recently visited IBM's Clear Lake facility and, in particular, the >>On-Board Shuttle software effort. This group has the distinction of >> ... > >In Richard Feynman's scathing indictment of NASA's managerial and >engineering practices related to risk assessment and control--issued as >an appendix in the Challenger commission report--the one area he >singled out for praise was *software*. (A nice turn of events for those >of us who've taken potshots from traditional engineers years). Am I >right in assuming that this software was developed at Clear Lake? > Family pride takes over: The software Feynmann was referring to may have included some that was written by IBM. However, I am quite sure that the bulk of the guidance and navigation software was written by Draper Lab, in Cambridge, MA, by a team that included my Dad. Draper also programmed the onboard computer for the Apollo missions (for the youngsters out there, Apollo went to the moon). There was never a serious problem with any of that software either. Just thought it would be nice to see credit where credit was due. -- John Felleman (508)-658-{0200,5600} X7034 AGFA Compugraphic ...!{decvax,samsung}!cg-atla!felleman 200 Ballardvale St. -or- Wilmington, Mass. 01887 felleman@cg-atla.agfa.com