[Cialug] Fast 486's and jumbo shrimp (was: Which Distro is best?)

[kristau]

I remember reading somewhere (don't remember where, though) that they
used the older 386/486 generation of CPU's on space craft primarily
because their form factor makes it difficult for radiation to effect
their operation.  As the chip processes have gotten smaller, errant
radiation particles are more likely to interfere.

Consider a very large raindrop falling from the sky.  If it hits the
surface of a full 5 gallon bucket of water, the bucket will still be
full of water.  If, however, that same drop hits a full thimble of
water, the thimble may retain little or no water after the impact.

586 CPUs are fine if you don't mind the occasional SBU or MBU
(Single/Multiple Bit Upset) causing a program or the OS to crash
(http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/history/shuttle-mir/science/iss/sc-iss-tpcs.htm).

This site (http://klabs.org/DEI/Processor/shuttle/) has a bunch of
documents about the avionics and computers on the shuttle vehicles.
Mostly historical stuff.

For an idea of what the future holds, Google EAFTC.

-- 
Tired programmer
Coding late into the night
The core dump follows

My GNUPG public key is available at http://www.kristau.net/public_key.asc