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Underwater Computer For Ocean Research
Jafa writes "Following the article on space laptops, here's
an article on a
computer built for underwater. Not as in a typical dive computer, or for higher pressure air environments,
but wet and under pressure. The article is fairly short on technical details, but it sounds like it uses key chords in place of a typical keyboard. We've got space, underwater, and nano. What other frontiers or environments are left for computers to work in?"
Here is a link to the Army Landwarrior system which uses ruggedized 4x1x8" dual-processor pentium systems to help foot soldiers. It's part of the Advanced Warfighting Experiment. The systems are encased in gel to ruggedize them, cool then and shock proof them.
The scary part - they run win 2k
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Don't know, but I know they can run at 100 Deg C.
My uncle works for GoodYear in their internal systems design department. I am told that the machines that they stick out on the assembly line must be super reliable. (ie, they can't afford to close down an entire section of the plant so that a human can enter the highly toxic/hot enviro. to fix a broken box.)
So, during the testing phase, I am told that they litterly seal up the box (they run i486 cpu's w/their own motherboards), hook up the sealed mux cable, start the canned software, and then toss (no joke) the system into a tank of fluid kept at approx. 180-208 Deg F. (if my memory serves me correctly) for 2 weeks.
I have no idea how the cooling works. I just know for a fact that it is done. Apparently there are a LOT of trade secrets in this stuff.
Just FYI,
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Hmmm, assuming this isn't just trawling, has it not occurred to you that there are plenty of working divers, who stay down a *lot* deeper than where it takes just a few minutes to come up again. Also there are divers who spend an awful lot of time underwater such as oil-rig divers etc, for whom having a computer to log faults etc would be very handy.
Not that I'm an expert or anything - deepest I've ever dived is when I've dropped the soap in my bathtub!
"Give the anarchist a cigarette"
A little planning goes a long way...
New method of DDOS attacks: Ex-lax brownies for the whole office!
Okay, a couple things to comment on here.
1) Once science invents a computer that can withstand blast forces and still operate with a melted processor, nuke blasts are covered.
2) Vacuum tubes are immune. The old style MiGs in the Russian Air Force were immune to the electromagnetic pulses from nuclear weapons. The U.S.A.F. planes were exceedingly vulnerable because they have every shiny nice new toy that the Air Farce wants to put in there, wherein it becomes next to impossible for one of those overpriced monsters to fly without electrical power. The MiGs didn't have the best glide ratio, but they could still operate in the bounds of the EMP.
So, if you want to make a computer that goes back to vacuum tubes and steam powered analytical engines, you could make it nuke-resistant. Either that, or slap 4 inches of lead on every side of the case, peripherals and cables.
Kierthos
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
I think the lack of a keyboard is bad, but I guess needed in such an environment. I wonder how they make the monitor work? The interesting thing is that (despite the I/O connections) you could waterproof a current computer with something as simple as epoxy.
Back in the '80's the guy who taught me BASIC on a TRS 80 was working on some sort of encrypted security sensor (I was allowed to see it, and only know a little of what it did, but hey, I was 11 at the time!) Anyways, since the sensor and its electronics had to be in a variable environment, what he did was encase the electronics in epoxy. The small board and chips easially fit inside an ice cube, and thats exactly how he encased them. He left the wires for the power and sensors out of the ice cube tray, then poured epoxy into the trays. Bingo. Totally encased eletronics. Now this did not look too great, but it worked...
You could do a similar thing with todays electronics though. the only problem would be the power supply and peripherals (and TOTAL lack of upgrades....) (Cooling would be easy, use a water-soluble material to mould around the heatsink, when the epoxy sets, wash away the mould, leaving a hole to the outside.
Thats my theory anyways. I think epoxy would work. (At least to a depth of 30 feet, I don't know if it could handle the pressure of say 150 feet. You would have to design the system carefully for those depths!)
Of course, I guess that simple pressure cases could do this just as easially simply hook the system up to the bcd and it should work for keeping the system properly pressurized...
Just some random geeky thoughts...
I feel like encasing one of my 486's in epoxy now to try that out....
Try to hack my 31337 firewall!
Windows works just fine... oh wait you mean its not just a pretty blue screen saver?
Would sound waves work better? They can travel very quickly under water, and although it'd be an analog signal, I'm pretty sure you could get more than 56k...
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The referenced article gives few details, but I'm willing to bet that the WetPC beats the SeaPC hands down (literally).
I'm building a Beowulf cluster using a bunch of 486 motherboards installed in the toilet tanks around the office.
Helps to keep the (overclocked) processors cool, and it saves water!
Fire and Meat. Yummy.
What other frontiers or environments are left for computers to work in?
What about very hot environments? It would be pretty easy to make a computer work at very cold temperature, but what about one that would work at very hot temperature like would be needed for a mission to Venus (200-400 C). This is really a fundamental semi-conductor problem. Does anyone know what's the hottest environment they've managed to make a processor run so far?
Opus: the Swiss army knife of audio codec
I'd love to see some of this technology perfected, commercialized and made lighter. Not so i can dive, but so I can have a laptop I can really throw around, if you know what I mean. Laptops are still relatively delicate, I would love one I could treat like any other notebook.
Actually, the overly-frequent flushing would probably cause all the processors to overheat (running dry too long) and would cause a rather massive hardware failure...
Fire and Meat. Yummy.
Re: Beowulf cluster of 486s mounted in toilet tanks.
Upgrade to P3s and eliminate your hot water bills! Not to mention that annoying fan noise.Great idea!
And when I'm taking a dump and a piece hits the water a little too fast, the water that sprays up from the bowl will give me third-degree burns.
On the other hand, I will agree with you that it does have its merits. Certainly, hot water in the toilet will probably reduce the incidence of stains and things in the bowl.
Fire and Meat. Yummy.
. . . to providing it with state of the art data collection equipment, NSU scientists were able to shave hundreds of dollars off the per unit cost by taking advantage of the enhanced overclockability of the Celeron in relatively cool seawater. "Watching the dual Celery 333's POST at 605 Mhz was a thrill even through goggles at 40 meters," said one. The Q3test results were not yet available at press time.
CEE5210S The signal SIGHUP was received.
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We've got space, underwater, and nano. What other frontiers or environments are left for computers to work in? My house. (rimshot).
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Napster-to-go says "Fill and refill your compatible MP3 player", which is a lie. It's not MP3. It's WMA with DRM.