GPS Transitions to New Control System 170
gsfprez writes "It took us a long time, but the Air Force has finally moved off of the 1970's mainframe GPS control system and is now running on a new Unix-based Control System called AEP — Architecture Evolution Plan. It's important to remember that current GPS satellites are basically solar powered iPod shuffles with atomic clocks that simply playback whatever we upload into them at a precise rate. They don't actually have any idea where they are — its the control system at Schriever Air Force Base that does. The new system will be a lot cheaper to support and modify since Sun stocks things like SATA drives - while digging up Saturday Night Fever-era DASDs isn't simple. AEP will also allow us to be ahead of the curve: we're basically good to go to fly the new IIF birds."
Yay! (Score:5, Funny)
They finally upgraded from 1970s technology to..
..Unix. Oh.
Um.
Yay!!!
Re:Confusion (Score:5, Funny)
Which Version of Unix (Score:2, Funny)
Which release of Unix are they moving to? Would that be an SCO Unix (System V Release 3.2) or SCO UnixWare (System V Release 4) :-)
what your post is like (Score:5, Funny)
--Steve
Re:Big Iron (Score:4, Funny)
Uploading (Score:3, Funny)
RDF-based space weapons (Score:4, Funny)
what my post is like (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Confusion (Score:5, Funny)
Roland? (Score:4, Funny)
After reading the iPod bit, I had to doublecheck to make sure the submission wasn't from you-know-how, but then I realized it both made too much sense and contained too little gobbledygook to be from him.
However, now I'm going to be anxiously watching the firehose for an article announcing Apple's new iDecay line of atomic clocks. These will be far better than the Air Force's because they'll have built in battery packs instead of relying on solar power, and offer touch sensitive screens which will redefine the paradigm of atomic clock interfaces.
Re:Maybe My Imagination (Score:2, Funny)
Re:i was edited and my points were lost.... (Score:4, Funny)
Great! When can I expect my taxes to go down because of this?
Re:Confusion (Score:5, Funny)
Q: What are they going to do with a billion dollar credit at the iTunes store? They song catalog isn't nearly that big!
A: Ringtones.
Epoch rollover? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:wow. (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Shame (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Confusion (Score:5, Funny)
iDecay (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Hope the reliability is just as good! (Score:3, Funny)
> free to use resource on the planet and above it?
Catholicism?
Iridium isn't free, but it's also been a God-send.
Re:Confusion (Score:5, Funny)