3 ms·

Wow, 4.5 kW of power draw max for a server with 512 MB of memory and the equivalent computer power of a single x86 core from about 25 years ago! I’m pretty sur

Wow, 4.5 kW of power draw max for a server with 512 MB of memory and the equivalent computer power of a single x86 core from about 25 years ago! I’m pretty sure an Arduino could run circles around that thing, using a battery.

grepfru_it 3y ago
Until you did a high G manuever or was cruising at 45k feet and get hit with a solar flare then your arduino would be rendered useless or at least introduce so many errors the watchdog hw would shutdown your newly acquired paperweight.
- jiggawatts 3y ago
  Ordinary consumer electronics can tolerate far higher G forces than the human pilot can. A standard technique is to simply liberally coat the electronics in epoxy resin, but that's only really needed for things like the guidance electronics in artillery shells. E.g.: Here's a drone reaching nearly 13 Gs, which would incapacitate or even injure a human: https://imgur.com/SHbDK2l https://imgur.com/SHbDK2l One recent change is that modern electronics uses mostly surface-mount components, which are not easily dislodged by g forces. Older electronics used large discrete components with wire legs (capacitors, inductors, etc...), which had a tendency to bend back and forth and eventually break off. However, tender requirements aren't changed just because technology has moved on. The paperwork must be completed as specified! The vendors must show that their new technology that doesn't have these problems includes solutions for problems only present in old technology! Etc... This results in 20-30 year old technology being used in new warplanes rolling off the production line today. But rest assured, it's being done properly, with all the correct paperwork filled out! Everything in order. Meanwhile, for the price of one of the two cooling fans on that monstrosity, I could buy half a dozen embedded processors made with silicon-on-insulator technology, which is also rad-hard, and have a 5-way system with majority voting and a hot spare... still running off a battery and cooled passively.
  - dralley 3y ago
    It's not just about g-forces, it's about high temperatures, heating/cooling cycles, vibrations, humidity, EMP resistance, etc. etc. It's cool that your drone can do 13 G's, but the more realistic scenario is doing 5-6 Gs over and over and over and over and over again, sitting out in the sun for weeks, sitting on the deck of a carrier in the tropics, getting launched off a carrier, getting shaken around and exposed to salty air, sitting a few feet from a high power radar - you get the point. Also, god forbid, but these things are designed to drop nukes, so that has to be taken into consideration as well.
    - jiggawatts 3y ago
      This is standard in a huge range of off-the-shelf consumer products, such as automotive electronics. They also are expected to operate under a huge temperature range, high humidity, etc... Military hardware isn't magic unobtanium that exists in some parallel plane with unique physical conditions. The choices being made for the F-35 have much more to do with government tender processes, military red tape, corruption, and general government incompetence than physics or engineering. PS: It turns out I had misread the L3Harris info page. That spec isn't for the existing F-35 computers that are now about 20 years old, but for the TR-3 upgrade which will start rolling out in mid-2024!!! These new "flying supercomputers" will be 16x faster than before. This is equivalent to upgrading from a 1994 Intel Pentium to an Apple Watch Series 1 from 2015. L3Harris is delivering just 1,000 units of these multi-kilowatt monstrosities for a low-low price of $300 million.
      - freetanga 3y ago
        Let me guess… do you work at Boeing?
      - relativ575 3y ago
        > The choices being made for the F-35 have much more to do with government tender processes, military red tape, corruption, and general government incompetence than physics or engineering. Say who? what were the competing solutions and how did F-35 go with the selection?
dghlsakjg 3y ago
An Arduino has memory that maxes out at 96kB and the computing power of an 8 bit microchip from the early 2000s... because that's what it is. I doubt to a high degree that an Arduino could handle anything that this computer can.

grepfru_it 3y ago

Until you did a high G manuever or was cruising at 45k feet and get hit with a solar flare then your arduino would be rendered useless or at least introduce so many errors the watchdog hw would shutdown your newly acquired paperweight.

jiggawatts 3y ago
Ordinary consumer electronics can tolerate far higher G forces than the human pilot can. A standard technique is to simply liberally coat the electronics in epoxy resin, but that's only really needed for things like the guidance electronics in artillery shells. E.g.: Here's a drone reaching nearly 13 Gs, which would incapacitate or even injure a human: https://imgur.com/SHbDK2l https://imgur.com/SHbDK2l One recent change is that modern electronics uses mostly surface-mount components, which are not easily dislodged by g forces. Older electronics used large discrete components with wire legs (capacitors, inductors, etc...), which had a tendency to bend back and forth and eventually break off. However, tender requirements aren't changed just because technology has moved on. The paperwork must be completed as specified! The vendors must show that their new technology that doesn't have these problems includes solutions for problems only present in old technology! Etc... This results in 20-30 year old technology being used in new warplanes rolling off the production line today. But rest assured, it's being done properly, with all the correct paperwork filled out! Everything in order. Meanwhile, for the price of one of the two cooling fans on that monstrosity, I could buy half a dozen embedded processors made with silicon-on-insulator technology, which is also rad-hard, and have a 5-way system with majority voting and a hot spare... still running off a battery and cooled passively.
- dralley 3y ago
  It's not just about g-forces, it's about high temperatures, heating/cooling cycles, vibrations, humidity, EMP resistance, etc. etc. It's cool that your drone can do 13 G's, but the more realistic scenario is doing 5-6 Gs over and over and over and over and over again, sitting out in the sun for weeks, sitting on the deck of a carrier in the tropics, getting launched off a carrier, getting shaken around and exposed to salty air, sitting a few feet from a high power radar - you get the point. Also, god forbid, but these things are designed to drop nukes, so that has to be taken into consideration as well.
  - jiggawatts 3y ago
    This is standard in a huge range of off-the-shelf consumer products, such as automotive electronics. They also are expected to operate under a huge temperature range, high humidity, etc... Military hardware isn't magic unobtanium that exists in some parallel plane with unique physical conditions. The choices being made for the F-35 have much more to do with government tender processes, military red tape, corruption, and general government incompetence than physics or engineering. PS: It turns out I had misread the L3Harris info page. That spec isn't for the existing F-35 computers that are now about 20 years old, but for the TR-3 upgrade which will start rolling out in mid-2024!!! These new "flying supercomputers" will be 16x faster than before. This is equivalent to upgrading from a 1994 Intel Pentium to an Apple Watch Series 1 from 2015. L3Harris is delivering just 1,000 units of these multi-kilowatt monstrosities for a low-low price of $300 million.
    - freetanga 3y ago
      Let me guess… do you work at Boeing?
    - relativ575 3y ago
      > The choices being made for the F-35 have much more to do with government tender processes, military red tape, corruption, and general government incompetence than physics or engineering. Say who? what were the competing solutions and how did F-35 go with the selection?

dghlsakjg 3y ago

An Arduino has memory that maxes out at 96kB and the computing power of an 8 bit microchip from the early 2000s... because that's what it is. I doubt to a high degree that an Arduino could handle anything that this computer can.