Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wasatch!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!bfmny0!tneff
From: tneff@bfmny0.UUCP (Tom Neff)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: space news from March 27 AW&ST
Message-ID: <14318@bfmny0.UUCP>
Date: 9 May 89 14:15:06 GMT
References: <1989May8.033250.18780@utzoo.uucp> <6958@ecsvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: tneff@bfmny0.UUCP (Tom Neff)
Organization: ^
Lines: 20

In article <6958@ecsvax.UUCP> cjl@ecsvax.UUCP (Charles J. Lord) writes:
>Second... Now, I agree that a 68030 in orbit is nicer than an 80386,
>but really, Henry - isn't a '386 better than the 8088 that was in
>the old GRIDs they *were* using? ;-)

Actually it was an 8086. The good old GRiD Compass. The only 
modification for flight was to replace the power supply with a 
transformer suited to the orbiter's middeck bus. They also attached a 
whole bunch of Velcro as you can imagine. 

That grid was MS-DOS capable but not PC-compatible (remember those 
days?). I believe the biggest reason they wanted to switch was not the 
power of the laptop (they really don't ask it to do very much) but the 
fact that none of the principal investigators for middeck experiments 
could even BUY a Compass anymore to write their support software! Now 
with a true AT386 compatible they can program in their own labs and 
transport the software over to the laptop for crew training. 
-- 
Tom Neff				UUCP:     ...!uunet!bfmny0!tneff
    "Truisms aren't everything."	Internet: tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET