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From: phil@eecs.nwu.edu (William LeFebvre)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: New Shuttle Computers
Message-ID: <1991Mar11.195324.6715@casbah.acns.nwu.edu>
Date: 11 Mar 91 19:53:24 GMT
References: <1991Mar4.202334.22118@casbah.acns.nwu.edu> <1991Mar5.013344.7971@umiami.ir.miami.edu> <1991Mar06.063034.12021@nowhere.uucp> <1991Mar7.010752.10632@agate.berkeley.edu>,<1991Mar9.044834.27802@cimage.com> <00945591.AE398080@KING.ENG.UMD.EDU>
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Reply-To: phil@eecs.nwu.edu (William LeFebvre)
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In article <00945591.AE398080@KING.ENG.UMD.EDU>, sysmgr@KING.ENG.UMD.EDU (Doug Mohney) writes:
|> >	The bottom line is that harddrives are only useful in situations where
|> >you will be *writing* alot of new data. The control program for the
|> >shuttle is only *read* during flight, never written. A read only tape drive
|> >can be made much more rugged than a hard drive.
|> 
|> Ick. Tape is slow. I like the CD-ROM idea better. 

A tape drive is what they use now.  It has the advantage of being a
"proven" and "well established" technology.  Would you trust YOUR life
to a CD-ROM drive?  I might.  Would you trust YOUR life to dynamic ram?
I certainly would not.

		William LeFebvre
		Computing Facilities Manager and Analyst
		Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
		Northwestern University
		<phil@eecs.nwu.edu>