Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

F-22 Avionics Require Inflight Reboot

Posted by chrisd on from the ctrl-alt-boom dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Atlanta Journal & Constitution is fronting a lengthy piece on the USAF's new F-22 and its upcoming shootout with the existing fleet of F-15's & 16's. One line in the article really jumped out at me: 'When avionics problems crop up now, pilots must restart the entire system as if rebooting a personal computer.' I did some googling, and this is about as much as I could find: The hardware backbone for the system is the Hughes Common Integrated Processor, which, in turn, appears to be built around the Intel i960 CPU. I couldn't find a name for the operating system, but it appears to be written in about one and a half million lines of Ada code; more on the Ada hardware integration and Ada i960 compilers is here. Any Slashdotters working on this project? If so, why do you need the inflight reboot? PS: Gamers will be interested to learn that nVidia's Quadro2 Go GPU and Wind River's VxWorks Operating System are melded in the F-22's Multi-Function Display."

12 of 559 comments (clear)

  1. Please reboot... by Subcarrier · · Score: 5, Funny

    Apparently, the reboot is only necessary after discharging ammunition. The hardware configuration wizard will pop up and instruct the pilot to reboot the system in order to activate the changes.

    --
    "I have opinions of my own, strong opinions, but I don't always agree with them." -- George H. W. Bush
  2. Duh.. by Malduin · · Score: 4, Funny

    If it requires an inflight reboot, there's no doubt what OS it's running. Gotta be Win98. I can see the MS tech support call now..

    MS Support: "Thank you for calling Microsoft Customer support. How may I help you?"
    Pilot: "Uhh.. I'm spiraling towards the earth, both my engines are out, and my display says 'General Protection Fault' in white text on a blue background."
    MS Support: "And what is the system model?"
    Pilot: "The the F-22 jet.."
    MS Support: "Oh yes, there are known issues that we will not admit to with that particular system. To temporarily fix the problem, simply reboot. Or, if the 5 minute boot time is too long, may I personally recommend that you eject. However, you will have to purchase another license of Windows 98 for $1000 since jet fighter crashes are not a valid reason to receive a new license."
    Pilot: "@#$*(! Microsoft!"
    MS Support: "Thank you and have a nice day!"

    1. Re:Duh.. by sql*kitten · · Score: 5, Funny

      If it requires an inflight reboot, there's no doubt what OS it's running.

      RH support: Thanks for calling Red Hat! How may we help you?
      Pilot: "Uhh.. I'm spiraling towards the earth, both my engines are out, and my display says 'kernel panic' in white text on a black background."
      RH Support: "And what is the system model?"
      Pilot: "The the F-22 jet.."
      RH support: If you read linux-kernel-bugtraq, you will see that you should have patched your kernel to 2.4.19-pre-alpha-revision-d before takeoff. But no problem, this is Linux after all. Do you have another F22 on your LAN? Just telnet in from there, su to root and restart sendmail.
      Pilot: @#$*! Redhat! I'm switching to Debian if I survive!
      RH support: Can I interest you in any RHAT?

    2. Re:Duh.. by Bartmoss · · Score: 5, Funny

      telnet? on a wlan? better use ipsec, or the enemy will have your f-22's passwords in no time.

      F-22 HUD Display: "Your System has been 0wned."

      Oops.

    3. Re:Duh.. by Grey+Brick · · Score: 4, Funny

      If it requires an inflight reboot, there's no doubt what OS it's running.

      FreeBSD support: Thanks for calling FreeBSD! How may we help you?
      Pilot: "Uhh.. I'm spiraling towards the earth, both my engines are out, and my display says 'Fatal trap 12: page fault while in kernel mode' in white text on a black background."
      FreeBSD Support: "And what is the system model?"
      Pilot: "The the F-22 jet.."
      FreeBSD support: No worries, just send us a full backtrace... you _did_ enable debugging information in your kernel didn't you?!
      Pilot: @#$*! FreeBSD! I'm switching to OpenBSD if I survive!
      FreeBSD support: RTFM!

    4. Re:Duh.. by GroovBird · · Score: 5, Funny

      pilot@airoplane:~$ su -c "apt-get install ejection-seat"
      Password:
      Reading Package Lists... Done
      Building Dependency Tree... Done
      E: Couldn't find package ejection-seat

      Damn!

    5. Re:Duh.. by Rogerborg · · Score: 5, Funny
      • If it requires an inflight reboot, there's no doubt what OS it's running.
      Apple support: Thanks for calling Apple! How may we help you?
      Pilot: "Uhh.. I'm spiraling towards the earth, both my engines are out, and my display says 'unresolved kernel trap' in white text on a black background, admittedly overlaid on very a friendly GUI. Before that, there was a three second delay accompanied by a busy icon whenever I tried anything."
      Apple Support: "And what is the system model?"
      Pilot: "The the F-22 jet.."
      Apple support: Oh, sorry, we don't plan to support that hardware until version 10.3. Can you use 10.2 Jaguar until then?
      Pilot: @#$*! Mac! I'm switching to BeOS if I survive!
      Apple support: Can I interest you in a .Mac subscription?
      --
      If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
  3. It's a safety feature. by Black+Parrot · · Score: 5, Funny

    Everyone knows that frequent reboots prevents crashes.

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  4. Re: Why do you need the inflight reboot? by back@slash · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's so todays pilots feel more at home with their fighter jets computer of course, having grown up with 90's software. You haven't seen the changes to communication protocal yet have you?

    typical conversation between pilots
    pilot1: u missed ur target fag u suck
    pilot2: stfu idiot i'll kik ur ass
    pilot1: lol ill show u how to shoot missles loser... im gonna get that camper anti-aircraft fag
    pilot2: haha u missed 2... u couldnt even hit ur fat momma

    and so forth....

    --
    This comment was generated by a Squadron of Ultra Ninjas
  5. imagine this by drDugan · · Score: 5, Funny



    MAVERICK
    I've lost him -- where is he?

    GOOSE
    On your six -- coming hard. Four
    hundred. Losing airspeed! He's on
    your six and closing fast!
    Hard left! HARD LEFT!

    Maverick jerks the stick left, and the F-14 takes an
    astonishing turn. Jester ROARS past into a wide arc.

    GOOSE
    Great move. Great

    MAVERICK
    He should've had me.

    GOOSE
    Take it down. Let's bug out of
    here. Call for a draw.

    MAVERICK
    No way. Let's reboot. I'll nail him this time.
    Going vertical.
    ...

  6. Re:I had to say it... by Anonvmous+Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    Not to be cliche or anything, and I'm sure you could see this one coming a million miles away,

    but what happens when it crashes?

    Hahahahaha!!!
    This reminds me of some trouble I got into in high-school once: Anybody remember Channel 1? It started around 1990-1, and it was a news channel that some schools got. Each episode had a trivia question just before a commercial break.

    One day, they asked "What is the most common cause of plane crashes?". I hastily and enthusiastically responded "gravity!!" I got in real serious trouble that day, I forgot that the teacher was also a pilot. The real answer was 'human error', which I had illustrated that day when my teacher shot me down to the principal's office.
  7. MS Pilotclip by zCyl · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hello! It appears you are trying to fire a missile, would you like my assistance?