Last I heard, the Cruise Missile used an
accelerated LISP machine and some heavymetal
terrain mapping and image recognition
technology. I'd be surprised if they haven't
since upgraded to far scarier embedded toys.
Even smartcard uprocs are more sophisticated
and they're deliberately a few fab
generations behind. I doubt even your washing
machine uses a Z80 these days.
State of the art missile guidance these
days is more like:
- GPS receiver
- spread-spectrum encrypted bidirectional data
stream for video feedback and remote control.
- terrain recognition software.
- feature recognition software to correlate
video input with satellite photos of
buildings etc.
- recognition of RF signatures
of friendly forces to avoid fratricide.
Noting how many millions each missile costs,
I somehow doubt you'd save a few bucks by
skimping on the uproc.
Before too long, smart pilotless attack planes
wielding hydrogen-fluoride lasers will make even
this seem quaint.
Apparently no-one recalls that when the PS2 was
in development, the Japanese Government was
considering placing military export controls on
the console since it could conceivably be used
for realtime terrain-recognition and other
applications in missile guidance.
This was not too long after the psycho North
Koreans did a bit of missile testing over the
Sea of Japan and scared the living shit out of
the Nihonjin.
I suspect some Iraqi engineer read the story ages
ago and thought:
"Cool. Mental note: Buy shitload of PS2s
when they are inevitably released. Build weapons
systems."
Slashdot Mirror
Guess again...
Last I heard, the Cruise Missile used an
accelerated LISP machine and some heavymetal
terrain mapping and image recognition
technology. I'd be surprised if they haven't
since upgraded to far scarier embedded toys.
Even smartcard uprocs are more sophisticated
and they're deliberately a few fab
generations behind. I doubt even your washing
machine uses a Z80 these days.
State of the art missile guidance these
days is more like:
- GPS receiver
- spread-spectrum encrypted bidirectional data
stream for video feedback and remote control.
- terrain recognition software.
- feature recognition software to correlate
video input with satellite photos of
buildings etc.
- recognition of RF signatures
of friendly forces to avoid fratricide.
Noting how many millions each missile costs,
I somehow doubt you'd save a few bucks by
skimping on the uproc.
Before too long, smart pilotless attack planes
wielding hydrogen-fluoride lasers will make even
this seem quaint.
Apparently no-one recalls that when the PS2 was
in development, the Japanese Government was
considering placing military export controls on
the console since it could conceivably be used
for realtime terrain-recognition and other
applications in missile guidance.
This was not too long after the psycho North
Koreans did a bit of missile testing over the
Sea of Japan and scared the living shit out of
the Nihonjin.
I suspect some Iraqi engineer read the story ages
ago and thought:
"Cool. Mental note: Buy shitload of PS2s
when they are inevitably released. Build weapons
systems."
Seriously...