14 ms·

Well the archaic systems are getting older and older. From what I've heard it's almost impossible to get replacement parts for some of the computer systems that

Well the archaic systems are getting older and older. From what I've heard it's almost impossible to get replacement parts for some of the computer systems that run airports/airlines.

tetha 9y ago
And on the other hand, there are massive requirements at all levels for this kind of software. I'm not sure what the right answer is at that point. From dev-experience, I wouldn't want half-assed software directing flights. From ops-experience, I don't want software directing flights requiring specific hardware so you can just replace the hardware with easily available hardware.
- drinchev 9y ago
  From dev-experience I would be surprised if SpaceX rockets run with decades old assembler code-base. I still believe we can create bug-free solution with modern toolset. It's a matter of zeros behind the project funding.
  - tetha 9y ago
    That's a good point. I'm just a bit disillusioned with the quality of some of the legacy stuff at my current place. Especially because robustness and probability of failures is mostly determined by requirements.
icebraining 9y ago
Not sure about aviation, but in other industries they virtualize the old hardware on a new architecture, and keep the software going.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
agumonkey 9y ago
perfect replacement part maybe not, but you may be able to emulate some chips with cheap cortex-m/a or esp class
the_mitsuhiko 9y ago
Eurocontrol does not run archaic systems.
tedunangst 9y ago
Was this failure caused by a hardware fault?
tyingq 9y ago
Has not been my experience. 2 decades in the airline space. It's mostly uninformed people assuming that TPF is the issue or that it runs on old hardware. Neither is true. In this case, for example, it wasn't the airline. It was Eurocontrol (https://www.eurocontrol.int https://www.eurocontrol.int) Airline tech outages are just more visible than outages in other industries. Like manufacturing, etc. It doesn't make the news when all your manufacturing plants halt for 6 hours due to tech issues. Airlines could improve, sure, but pundit observations are usually off base. They are also dependent on systems they don't control, like ATC, TSA, Airport owned kiosks, and so on.
dx034 9y ago
That's more a problem with core banking software (and the hardware it runs on) than with airline software.

Well the archaic systems are getting older and older. From what I've heard it's almost impossible to get replacement parts for some of the computer systems that run airports/airlines.

tetha 9y ago

And on the other hand, there are massive requirements at all levels for this kind of software. I'm not sure what the right answer is at that point. From dev-experience, I wouldn't want half-assed software directing flights. From ops-experience, I don't want software directing flights requiring specific hardware so you can just replace the hardware with easily available hardware.

drinchev 9y ago
From dev-experience I would be surprised if SpaceX rockets run with decades old assembler code-base. I still believe we can create bug-free solution with modern toolset. It's a matter of zeros behind the project funding.
- tetha 9y ago
  That's a good point. I'm just a bit disillusioned with the quality of some of the legacy stuff at my current place. Especially because robustness and probability of failures is mostly determined by requirements.

icebraining 9y ago

Not sure about aviation, but in other industries they virtualize the old hardware on a new architecture, and keep the software going.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

agumonkey 9y ago

perfect replacement part maybe not, but you may be able to emulate some chips with cheap cortex-m/a or esp class

the_mitsuhiko 9y ago

Eurocontrol does not run archaic systems.

tedunangst 9y ago

Was this failure caused by a hardware fault?

tyingq 9y ago

Has not been my experience. 2 decades in the airline space. It's mostly uninformed people assuming that TPF is the issue or that it runs on old hardware. Neither is true. In this case, for example, it wasn't the airline. It was Eurocontrol (https://www.eurocontrol.int https://www.eurocontrol.int) Airline tech outages are just more visible than outages in other industries. Like manufacturing, etc. It doesn't make the news when all your manufacturing plants halt for 6 hours due to tech issues. Airlines could improve, sure, but pundit observations are usually off base. They are also dependent on systems they don't control, like ATC, TSA, Airport owned kiosks, and so on.

dx034 9y ago

That's more a problem with core banking software (and the hardware it runs on) than with airline software.