Yup, at Rolm the core memory team was all women... finer touch.
On 8/31/22 10:29 AM, Chuck McCown via AF wrote:
I remember seeing movies when I was a kid of women sewing these things
by hand.
*From:* Robert
*Sent:* Wednesday, August 31, 2022 11:24 AM
*To:* [email protected]
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] OT Voyager
Almost certainly using core memory, not subject to cosmic ray damage.
Used to have it on Rolm Mil-Spec computers. Turn off system, turn it
back on, right where it was before...
On 8/31/22 10:13 AM, Chuck McCown via AF wrote:
I was taught, many years ago, that minority (might have been
majority) charge carrier migration in semiconductors would render
them useless in 20 years. Also solar panels are supposed to wear out
in 20 years. And cosmic rays kill all semiconductors. etc etc
Danged good modulation they are using whatever it is. I think it was
some kind of pseudo random noise code but I may be wrong about that.
A professor in an analog class told me that almost 40 years ago.
*From:* [email protected]
*Sent:* Wednesday, August 31, 2022 11:08 AM
*To:* 'AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group'
*Cc:* 'Chuck McCown'
*Subject:* RE: [AFMUG] OT Voyager
I’d bet a smaller codebase helps. No gigabytes of libraries to debug.
But yeah, if something I built lasted 45 years in outer space I’d pat
myself on the back a bit.
*From:* AF mailto:[email protected] *On Behalf Of *Chuck McCown
via AF
*Sent:* Wednesday, August 31, 2022 11:50 AM
*To:* [email protected]
*Cc:* Chuck McCown mailto:[email protected]
*Subject:* [AFMUG] OT Voyager
This space vehicle launched 45 years ago started sending garbage
telemetry. The folks running that show figured it was routing the
data through a known defective computer.
So they commanded it to switch to the good computer and they got good
telemetry.
Talk about latency... 16 hours.
So 45 (more likely 55) year old hardware running an OS that old is
still essentially rocks solid. So are the transmitters and receivers
and other RF components allowing communication clear out into deep
space.
Damn, those engineers and coders must be proud of the job they did.
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