| Author |
Message |
John Savard
Guest
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 Posted:
Sun Sep 11, 2005 7:11 am Post subject:
A Reliable Microprocessor... |
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Recently, I picked up a book about a cave made famous by a computer
game...
and the connection between that and Floyd Collins caused me to start
thinking of the many well-known people who share that surname.
Michael Collins, the astronaut;
Michael Collins, the Irish politician;
Phil Collins, the musician;
Aukai Collins, the mujahid who is on our side;
William O. Collins, after whom Fort Collins is named;
Arthur Collins, who founded Collins Radio;
On the other hand, nobody seems to knwo for sure who the real Tom
Collins was after whom the drink was named.
Since the WWV station is in Fort Collins, I had always thought that
Collins Radio is named after the city.
Anyhow, in all this web searching, I found out that Rockwell Collins now
continues the proud tradition of Collins Radio. Even if they don't seem
to make ham radio equipment anymore, and have concentrated on avionics.
In any event, I saw that one of that company's "firsts" was making the
first FAA-certified and safety-critical microprocessor.
Ahem.
I remember all those disclaimers from microprocessor manuals; I had no
idea there was actually a *choice*, and one actually _could_ get a
microprocessor for use in things like medical equipment.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to identify the chip or its architecture
from the company's site...
John Savard
http://home.ecn.ab.ca/~jsavard/index.html
http://www.quadibloc.com/index.html
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Edward A. Feustel
Guest
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| Posted:
Sun Sep 11, 2005 3:38 pm Post subject:
Re: A Reliable Microprocessor... |
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"John Savard" <jsavard@excxn.aNOSPAMb.cdn.invalid> wrote in message
news:4323907f.938967@news.usenetzone.com...
| Quote: | Recently, I picked up a book about a cave made famous by a computer
game...
and the connection between that and Floyd Collins caused me to start
thinking of the many well-known people who share that surname.
Michael Collins, the astronaut;
Michael Collins, the Irish politician;
Phil Collins, the musician;
Aukai Collins, the mujahid who is on our side;
William O. Collins, after whom Fort Collins is named;
Arthur Collins, who founded Collins Radio;
On the other hand, nobody seems to knwo for sure who the real Tom
Collins was after whom the drink was named.
Since the WWV station is in Fort Collins, I had always thought that
Collins Radio is named after the city.
Anyhow, in all this web searching, I found out that Rockwell Collins now
continues the proud tradition of Collins Radio. Even if they don't seem
to make ham radio equipment anymore, and have concentrated on avionics.
In any event, I saw that one of that company's "firsts" was making the
first FAA-certified and safety-critical microprocessor.
Ahem.
I remember all those disclaimers from microprocessor manuals; I had no
idea there was actually a *choice*, and one actually _could_ get a
microprocessor for use in things like medical equipment.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to identify the chip or its architecture
from the company's site...
John Savard
http://home.ecn.ab.ca/~jsavard/index.html
http://www.quadibloc.com/index.html
_________________________________________
If you look back to the early 90's, Intel tried to achieve such a processor |
with
their BiiN series of processors. They had special CMOS comparators that
tracked
two 960XA operating synchronously to verify that their outputs were the
same.
As I recall they had a similar mechanism for memory error control.
I would not be surprised if all the stuff including the XA could now be put
on a single
chip.
Ed |
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Alex Gibson
Guest
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| Posted:
Sun Sep 11, 2005 4:15 pm Post subject:
Re: A Reliable Microprocessor... |
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"John Savard" <jsavard@excxn.aNOSPAMb.cdn.invalid> wrote in message
news:4323907f.938967@news.usenetzone.com...
| Quote: | Anyhow, in all this web searching, I found out that Rockwell Collins now
continues the proud tradition of Collins Radio. Even if they don't seem
to make ham radio equipment anymore, and have concentrated on avionics.
In any event, I saw that one of that company's "firsts" was making the
first FAA-certified and safety-critical microprocessor.
Ahem.
I remember all those disclaimers from microprocessor manuals; I had no
idea there was actually a *choice*, and one actually _could_ get a
microprocessor for use in things like medical equipment.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to identify the chip or its architecture
from the company's site...
John Savard
|
Was that the JEM ?
Thats the java hardware virtual machine ?
http://www.collins.rockwell.com/genav/news/nbaa9710.htm
I know Rockwell spun off or was formed from Rockwell people - one company
aJile systems
http://www.ajile.com/
http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-11-1999/jw-11-newsbriefs.html#8
For avionics I've seen 8051's , 8086, 386 , 486.
I know that a lot of the entertainment systems are Intel based.
Quite a few of the newer integrated map / comms /display systems use
pentiums S370 P3's and celerons. Also ppc's 4xx , 7xx and G4's.
Looking at the Arinc664 drafts, interesting to see
more open standards being adopted for Avionics
IEEE 802.3
http://www.arinc.com/aeec/projects/index.html
http://www.arinc.com/aeec/general_session/gs_reports/2002/presentations/18_adn/adn_summary.pdf
http://www.arinc.com/aeec/draft_documents/index.html
http://www.arinc.com/aeec/projects/index.html
http://www.arinc.com/aeec/general_session/gs_reports/index.html
Especially using ethenet and IP for everything.
http://www.arinc.com/aeec/draft_documents/664p1_d2s1.pdf
"UDP/IP or TCP/IP routing and transport protocols above the Ethernet Data
Link
layer"
Like Can (canbus) over IP for instrumentation.
Looking at wireless inflight entertainment systems for the future.
http://www.rockwellcollins.com/news/page6245.html
Note the CDN based on ethernet. |
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Guest
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| Posted:
Wed Sep 14, 2005 4:15 pm Post subject:
Re: A Reliable Microprocessor... |
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| Quote: | Since the WWV station is in Fort Collins, I had
always thought that Collins Radio is named after the city.
|
Oh, no. WWV wasn't moved to Fort Collins CO until 1966. Before that
it was in Greenbelt Maryland.
The folks in Cedar Rapids wouldn't be so happy if Art Collins had named
his company after a different city :-).
| Quote: | In any event, I saw that one of that company's "firsts"
was making the first FAA-certified and safety-critical
microprocessor.
Ahem.
|
Collins was big on formal verification of processors in the 90's.
But the railroad industry was using microprocessor-based systems for
safety-critical functions before then. Google for "vital processor"
and look specifically at the patents granted to US&S and GRS and other
railroad interlocking makers in the 80's/90's.
The railroad industry generally has the advantage of a fail-safe
condition of setting all signals to stop and applying brakes.
Airplanes are a little more complicated as they don't have brakes and
generally just shutting down the engines doesn't make anything any
safer either!
Tim. |
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