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One of most remarkable feats in computer science ?



 
 
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  #1  
Old September 20th 03, 02:20 AM
Michael A. Covington
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Default One of most remarkable feats in computer science ?


"Vance Roos" wrote in message
...
FROM THE ECONOMIST (see extract below).

Is it really true or even almost true when the article states this?

"in one of the most remarkable feats in the history of computer
science, Galileo's operators completely reprogrammed the craft's
computers to take advantage of modern data-compression methods."

I don't know what was involved but if anyone has any views they would
be interesting to hear.


It was probably an ambitious feat, but I don't think it's "one of the most
remarkable feats in modern computer science." People do ambitious things
with computers a lot of the time... Unless there's something to it that I'm
completely unaware of, I don't think any new _computer science_ ground was
broken, though it was definitely an impressive thing to have done.

Michael A. Covington - Associate Director
Artificial Intelligence Center, The University of Georgia
http://www.ai.uga.edu/~mc


  #2  
Old September 22nd 03, 06:28 AM
Chris.B
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"Michael A. Covington" wrote in message ...

It was probably an ambitious feat, but I don't think it's "one of the most
remarkable feats in modern computer science." People do ambitious things
with computers a lot of the time.

Michael A. Covington



Mere child's play compared with reprogramming a Nokia 9800s off the
dish I should think. But then Nokia hasn't discovered the internet
yet. The 9800s is still a bit wobbly on its legs but out of immediate
danger. I just hope it doesn't try to crash into Jupiter!

Chris.B
  #3  
Old September 22nd 03, 06:28 AM
Chris.B
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"Michael A. Covington" wrote in message ...

It was probably an ambitious feat, but I don't think it's "one of the most
remarkable feats in modern computer science." People do ambitious things
with computers a lot of the time.

Michael A. Covington



Mere child's play compared with reprogramming a Nokia 9800s off the
dish I should think. But then Nokia hasn't discovered the internet
yet. The 9800s is still a bit wobbly on its legs but out of immediate
danger. I just hope it doesn't try to crash into Jupiter!

Chris.B
  #4  
Old September 22nd 03, 10:05 AM
Steve Taylor
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Chris.B wrote:
"Michael A. Covington" wrote in message ...

It was probably an ambitious feat, but I don't think it's "one of the most
remarkable feats in modern computer science." People do ambitious things
with computers a lot of the time.

Michael A. Covington




Mere child's play compared with reprogramming a Nokia 9800s off the
dish I should think. But then Nokia hasn't discovered the internet
yet. The 9800s is still a bit wobbly on its legs but out of immediate
danger. I just hope it doesn't try to crash into Jupiter!

Chris.B

The other thing to remember is that the systems are not modern embedded
processors, which are design for this kind of thing, but code written on
1970's flight qualified processors. They have no FLASH roms, or modern
static RAMS. Offline data storage isn't a convenient gigabyte hard-disk
- its a bloody tape recorder. Data is transmitted at rates that make
modem access look like ethernet.

No, hats off to them, Galileo presented unique problems, some due to
failure admittedly.

It was a bloody clever trick.

Steve



  #5  
Old September 22nd 03, 10:05 AM
Steve Taylor
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Chris.B wrote:
"Michael A. Covington" wrote in message ...

It was probably an ambitious feat, but I don't think it's "one of the most
remarkable feats in modern computer science." People do ambitious things
with computers a lot of the time.

Michael A. Covington




Mere child's play compared with reprogramming a Nokia 9800s off the
dish I should think. But then Nokia hasn't discovered the internet
yet. The 9800s is still a bit wobbly on its legs but out of immediate
danger. I just hope it doesn't try to crash into Jupiter!

Chris.B

The other thing to remember is that the systems are not modern embedded
processors, which are design for this kind of thing, but code written on
1970's flight qualified processors. They have no FLASH roms, or modern
static RAMS. Offline data storage isn't a convenient gigabyte hard-disk
- its a bloody tape recorder. Data is transmitted at rates that make
modem access look like ethernet.

No, hats off to them, Galileo presented unique problems, some due to
failure admittedly.

It was a bloody clever trick.

Steve



 




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