Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

US Switches Air Traffic Control To New Computer System

Posted by samzenpus on from the upgrade-complete dept.

coondoggie writes: The Federal Aviation Administration this week said it had completed the momentous replacement of the 40-year-old main computer systems that control air traffic in the US. Known as En Route Automation Modernization (ERAM), the system is expected to increase air traffic flow, improve automated navigation and strengthen aircraft conflict detection services, with the end result being increased safety and less flight congestion. The FAA said the Lockheed Martin-developed ERAM systems “uses nearly two million lines of computer code to process critical data for controllers, including aircraft identity, altitude, speed, and flight path. The system almost doubles the number of flights that can be tracked and displayed to controllers.”

3 of 160 comments (clear)

  1. Uh, only doubled? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So how does a 40 year old computer system get replaced and only doubles the number of flights capable of being tracked?

    1. Re:Uh, only doubled? by ColdWetDog · · Score: 5, Insightful

      So how does a 40 year old computer system get replaced and only doubles the number of flights capable of being tracked?

      How about this concept: Maybe that is all that they set it up for. The rate limiting step of the Airway Traffic Control system just might be somewhere else so there would be no need to do anything else.

      I do find it concerning that the system comprises of 'two million lines of code'. Last time I heard that metric was "Jurassic Park". And we know how well that turned out.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  2. Re:40 years & merely "almost doubles" performa by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hmmm. People are still the same size, fuel is still the same, turbines still use the same theories, the planet hasn't gotten bigger, the atmosphere is still the same, our materials are still the same..

    Could it be, and this might be a shocker, could it be that the limits on materials have nothing to do with information processing?

    For example, you might want to sit down for this and read it a few times, could it be that just because processors got a thousand times faster it doesn't mean that we can somehow actually put a thousand times more airplanes in the air?

    I'm just wondering out loud here.