Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!sun-barr!apple!rutgers!att!cbnews!arnaud
From: arnaud@cbnews.ATT.COM (alain.arnaud)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: USSR Microcomputers: How far behind US?
Message-ID: <6427@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 10 May 89 13:31:15 GMT
References: <1805@orion.cf.uci.edu> <8013@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <528@laic.UUCP> <1905@etive.ed.ac.uk> <4366@ttidca.TTI.COM> <1203@isieng.UUCP> <8902@csli.Stanford.EDU>
Reply-To: arnaud@cbnews.ATT.COM (alain.arnaud)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 26

>I thought the computers on the shuttles used ferrite core RAMs.
>Supposedly more radiation-resistant or something. You're right about
>having an AT on board increasing the computing power, but I'd rather
>see a tested computer run the Shuttle than a fancy, new, fast and
>*untested* (read bugged). It's finally up again and we don't want
>the space program set back by a catastrophe due to the AT going:
>	Fatal error: stack overflow, system halted
>or
>	PARITY CHECK 2
>during ascent...
>
The current shuttle computers use core memory. NASA has currently a
multi-billion dollar program to upgrade the computing power of the
shuttle. Before being used in actual flight, they have to be
qualified, this entails extensive testing of both hardware and
software. The upgrade will be flight tested in the mid-90s. 
Currently, shuttle astronauts, augment their comuting power by using
HP-41s calculator, and more recently they have been using Grid
Laptops. On the last two flights they have been using a 386 laptop,
mainly to test the reliability of the hardware, specially of the
mass storage devices (hard disks and floppies), and the
compatibility with the laptops they were using pre-Challenger.

Alan Arnaud 
(arnaud@angate.att.com)  
Disclaimer: Speaking for myself only.