Lassi Hippeläinen wrote:
> 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.
>

The gov can't even get them to build one as part of some sort of
special contract
or something?

> -- Lassi