Path: csiph.com!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!feeder.erje.net!eu.feeder.erje.net!news.etla.org!aioe.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "Rod Pemberton" Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth Subject: Re: Comet Landing - a triumph for Forth in Hardware and Forth in Software From steering telescopes to steering Philae Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 19:43:35 -0500 Organization: Aioe.org NNTP Server Lines: 62 Message-ID: References: <9d07693c-9246-4dce-b1a0-71edcb95be3b@googlegroups.com> <27eae3a5-e450-4f7a-b1b9-1efe24d8f14b@googlegroups.com> <3b287971-bcf2-4a92-b445-eba2ea3b7e05@googlegroups.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: i+Urkql2cL38hhKqzSWEjg.user.speranza.aioe.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed; delsp=yes Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Complaints-To: abuse@aioe.org User-Agent: Opera Mail/12.16 (Linux) X-Notice: Filtered by postfilter v. 0.8.2 Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.forth:34549 On Fri, 21 Nov 2014 05:01:03 -0500, Mark Wills wrote: > On Friday, 21 November 2014 03:29:53 UTC, Rod Pemberton wrote: >> Also, why would they use RTX2000 series when radiation >> hardened Intel Pentiums have been available since 1998? >> > Because the Pentium, compared to the RTX is a power hog. > According to something I read about the Philae project, > the overriding constraint was the power budget. The RTX > was/is the lowest power consuming rad-hardened device > available. That it runs Forth is cool, but the instruction > set had nothing to do with its selection as the processor > to use. It was the power budget. I did see it confirmed > just today (over on the Fignition Forth mailing list > (a google group)) that 9 of the 10 Forth CPUs were coded > directly in Forth. The other was coded in C, with obviously > some sort of C to Forth compiler to produce the under-lying > machine code. > Fair enough. Although, I did mean that in the context of Hugh's belief they'd use the RTX2000 for the power grid. I really can't see most businesses choosing a solution which might be harder or costlier for them to maintain. I guess the lack of programmers for Forth, and even smaller group of hackers who would attack Forth systems, could be considered a "security" feature ... Of course, it's very possible that US laws might, currently or in the future, force them to take protections against terrorist or world wars. >> This reminds me of the photo of a man on his >> bicycle in Donetsk, Ukraine staring at a small gas >> pipeline. Most of it is low to the ground, much like a >> fence. Of course, it's way too low to cross over roads. >> So, it was raised, but only over the roads ... It was >> raised just enough so that an average height truck >> wouldn't hit the pipe. >> > > That wouldn't have been a gas pipe. It would be a steam pipe. Yes, I was thinking hydrocarbon gas. Although, steam is a gas ... So, is it still a gas pipepline? :-) > They're all over the ex-soviet countries. Heat for homes is > generated centrally and piped (as high-pressure steam) directly > into peoples homes. They're damn hot. At, least if you live > close to the steam generator! When I lived/worked in Kazakhstan > I would have to crack the windows open a little in winter as > it was boiling in the house. However, it was -45C (-49F) outside! A relative had to do much the same when living in New York city in a building with steam heat. Supposedly, the air conditioning in an old urban building of a former employer, now demolished, ran on city supplied steam. Rod Pemberton