(blush) thanks. We use these simulators for training - it's cheaper/safer than the real aircraft. - The pilots and instructor inside the cabin manipulate cont

(blush) thanks. We use these simulators for training - it's cheaper/safer than the real aircraft. - The pilots and instructor inside the cabin manipulate controls/switches/CBs/panels, sending signals to an bunch of interface cards. - The interface cards convert voltages to values, and move them into a big chunk of shared memory on the host computer. - The host computer recalculates the new state of the simulation, updating everything in the shared memory, 60 times a second. - New values in the shared memory are sent to the interface cards. - The interface cards convert values to voltages, driving the instruments, sound, visual and motion systems. It all happens so fast that the pilots never sense the latency between their action and the effects in the cockpit. The host computer is the brain of the system, that's why a small bug there can be dangerous.