From Newsgroup: comp.programming

https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/faa-eliminate-floppy-disks-outdated-tech-air-traffic-control-system/

FAA to eliminate floppy disks, outdated tech in air traffic
control system

Transportation officials seek to implement new state-of-the-art
system

Plan will eliminate outdated tech like floppy disks, Windows 95

. . .

Floppies & Win-95 ....

Well, they worked, but ......

I'm surprised they got up as far as Win-95.

A few years back there was a stoppage at a
large French airport - the system that guided
planes around the taxi-ways. Turned out it was
run by one old box, running Win-3.11

In any case it's become very clear that a major
update is needed for the US airport/routing
system. Knowing the govt process, the stuff
will already be obsolete by the time it's
installed, but not nearly SO obsolete.

Kind of sad angle ... the CPU/space limitations
of the old systems made EXTREMELY tight and
function-oriented SOFTWARE a necessity. I've
seen, sometimes done, a little of that. It's
an impressive art. Likely still seen on space
probes and Mars rovers and such (plus clever
arrangements for ULTRA-redundancy). These are
the programmers I most respect.

There are few radiation-hardened chips coming
out these days. We're still talking 80s tech.
Slow - but robust. Big enough transistors so
cosmic rays and such won't compromise things.

Try :


https://my.avnet.com/silica/resources/article/radiation-hardened-processors-for-space/

For some newer hardware.

If you really want to learn ultra-tight programming
I'd suggest PIC and AVR microcontrollers - SO little
RAM/EEPROM/Speed. Think BYTES of RAM ... what CAN you
make 'em do ? Some can make them do a LOT.
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From Newsgroup: comp.programming

On Fri, 13 Jun 2025 22:38:38 -0400, c186282 wrote:

In any case it's become very clear that a major update is needed for
the US airport/routing system. Knowing the govt process, the stuff
will already be obsolete by the time it's installed, but not nearly
SO obsolete.

In the early '70s we had a contract to build the controllers for the ALS system. The heart of the controller was an Eagle Signal electromechanical stepping switch which was pretty much obsolete. The harnesses had to be
laced since the FAA wasn't sure about those new-fangled nylon cable ties.

There are few radiation-hardened chips coming out these days. We're
still talking 80s tech. Slow - but robust. Big enough transistors so
cosmic rays and such won't compromise things.

One project I worked on used TI's TMS9900 microprocessor of TI-99/4 fame.
Or notoriety, take your pick. Its claim to fame was TI produced rad-hard parts. TI had ties to the defense industry that made them a natural.

TI was also involved with the 'expert systems' flavor of AI after neural networks fell on their face in the '80s.

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