Sebastian Gottschalk wrote:

> w_tom wrote:
>
>> Sebastian Gottschalk wrote:
>>>> For example, spacecraft don't use advanced Pentium processors.
>>>> Spacecraft use 8086 or 68000 version processors that have been well
>>>> proven in retail and commercial applications AND then were qualified
>>>> (tested) for space operation.
>>>
>>> The main reason is that they're cheap.
>>
>> Apparently you have not worked in and meet requirements for aerospace.
>> Getting a semiconductor 'fully qualitifed' is not cheap.
>
> Again: They could also use qualified and long-tested modern
> high-performance chips. Instead they resort to using way more old and slow
> chips.

No. In space you need rad-hard chips. And it's not enough to package the
chip better, you have to redesign the silicon to be tolerant to occasional
charged particles that hit the chips anyway. The market for those chips is
so small that you just can't get the latest and shiniest processors. In
many cases you don't even need them. The bottleneck isn't processing power
(except maybe in imaging), it's in communications.

-- Lassi