IBM ThinkPad Laptop computers

IBM ThinkPad Laptop computers: The shuttle: NASA's IT legacy

18.07.11 US span agency NASA oversaw its last ever space alternate launch in July 2011, 30 years after the first commute took flight. were computers almost as old as the shuttle programme itself. s exodus control system are five IBM AP-101s, 25-year-old avionics computers whose polytechnic specifications are exceeded by today&rsquo. While the commute is in flight, four of the five computers operate in sync, checking each other for faults 500 times a twinkling (a modern PC could do this billions of times per second). The fifth computer runs the Backup Do a bunk System (BFS), which is built using the same hardware but uses altogether separate software. It takes over in the event of all four AP-101s in default of, something that has never happened on any shuttle mission. That reliability is one think why NASA has never replaced the five AP-101s. s strict requirements for exit certification would be prohibitively expensive, especially when the old system still does the job satisfactorily.

Source: Information Age