"Morgans" wrote in
:


"N93332" wrote

I'm sure glad airplanes don't go 'obsolete' as fast. My '46 Ercoupe
works fine for me...

Boy, ain't that the truth! Even the space shuttle runs on what was tons
of computer power then, now less than a laptop! Wow!

If I am remembering correctly off the top of my head, the original
shuttle computers were basically 5 Apple II's networked. That is,
it was the same CPU anyway, 6502's.

They've since been upgraded. I think they have "486's" now.

Space computers are always lagging behind our desktops. It's not
easy space certifying electronics. Cosmic rays play havoc on
microchips, especially RAM.

In one specific instance the Russians allowed an American to bring
up some store bought laptops to the ISS, to which NASA was not happy.
Thos elaptops were used for a special project.

I dabble with ray traced computer graphics using the program POVRay.
http://www.povray.org.

There is one image in the Hall of Fame that was rendered on those
laptops on the ISS: http://www.povray.org/community/hof/16b.php

Complete details at: http://www.oyonale.com/iss/english/

Brian
--
http://www.skywise711.com - Lasers, Seismology, Astronomy, Skepticism
Seismic FAQ: http://www.skywise711.com/SeismicFAQ/SeismicFAQ.html
Quake "predictions": http://www.skywise711.com/quakes/EQDB/index.html
Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes?
Supernews sucks - blocking google, usenet.com & newsfeeds.com posts