Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!oliveb!pyramid!isieng!roy
From: roy@isieng.UUCP (Roy Wells)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: USSR Microcomputers: How far behind US?
Message-ID: <1205@isieng.UUCP>
Date: 10 May 89 14:42:18 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> <15040@louie.udel.EDU>
Reply-To: roy@isieng.UUCP (Roy Wells)
Organization: Integrated Solutions, Inc., San Jose, CA
Lines: 28

In article <15040@louie.udel.EDU> new@udel.EDU (Darren New) writes:
>In article <1203@isieng.UUCP> roy@isieng.UUCP (Roy Wells) writes:
>>Also remember that our shuttle has really antique computers onboard.  
>>What boggles the brain is that we won't retrofit the thing with 
>>something more modern.
>
>Why? They work, don't they? (:-)  (At least usually?)
>Other than the fact that programs need to be manually 
>loaded in flight for different phases of the mission,
>using old reliable technology gives old reliable
>performance. -- Darren

They work, but are extremely limited.  For example the time the 
lauch had to be scrubbed because the shuttle was programmed 
for winds and the air was too still.

We may not need to bring them to the latest in RISC technology, 
but we could at least give them sufficient capability that they 
could quickly and easily be loaded with software for alternative 
launch and landing parameters!



-- 
Roy Wells				| Clothes make the man.  Naked 
Integrated Solutions			| people have little or no influence
My opinions are mine.  They are 	| on society.
available for rent, though.		| -- Mark Twain