[ale] [OT] Mars Lander!

[Alex Carver]

On 8/6/2012 09:05, JD wrote:
> Wikipedia says that the rover runs: "VxWorks (multitasking)"
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_embedded_computer_systems_on_board_the_Mars_rovers#Performance_comparisons
>
> The CPU is a radiation hardened PowerPC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAD750 .
> I saw a bunch of MacBooks in the control room last night. I couldn't make out
> what OS the built-in workstations were running, but they appeared to be some
> sort of UNIX.
>
> Real-time OSes are different from desktop or server OSes.  A late answer is a
> wrong/bad answer.  When I was programming spacecraft avionics, I would have
> loved to have one of those PPC processors and a modern OS.
>
> I couldn't find any current information about in 20 minutes of searching online
> and reading about the OS running on the workstations and servers used at JPL
> Space Flight Operations Facility. Most of what I found was historical from
> before the 1990s.

The mission control room machines are Dells running RHEL (a couple run 
Windows).  There's a few Sun workstations in there, too, running 
Solaris.  Any laptop you saw in the landing telecast belongs to the 
individuals (their work computers) and those are a mix of Macs, Dells, 
and HPs running OSX or Windows XP/Vista/7.

The SFOF machines (in the "Dark Room") are Dells with RHEL or Windows.


-Alex
(Waving back at Atlanta from JPL)