Le Chaud Lapin wrote:
So a different approach might be to stop making finished systems and
instead focus on components. Manufacturers would make controls in
sensors in wide variety, all conforming to USB standard. A (cheap)
commodity PC would be able to control everything. And (licensed)
software developers could do their part.

Since when are software people licensed? Who does the licensing?
What are the exams? What is the followup to maintain it?

I just came back from a business trip and found my WinXP box dead.
As with every trip, I had shut everything down, disconnected the
power from the wall (actually, the UPS but that's another story).
Got home, reconnected everything, hit the power switch. Nothing.
Dead. I've already spent a couple hours diagnosing with no luck.

I can see your scenario of a cheap, COTS PC running the systems in my
cherokee crashing on my at night in IMC. Sure. Right. And my lawyers
will be in touch with your lawyers.

Do I like paying $675 for a new AI? Nope. Or $3400 for a new NAV/COM?
Or $6000 + installation for a 430? Nope. But in spite of what we think
of the FAA bureaucracy, the engineering and related groups really are
quality-driven. When I get a TC/STC/TSO/Certified item, I have a warm,
fuzzy feeling that it will do what it's supposed to do, have a reasonable
MTBF, and that under day-to-day circumstances, I won't have any
surprises.

At no time in my professional career (very large software systems in
aerospace) have I *EVER* had that feeling
with a COTS software or hardware system in a mission-critical environment.