From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,c6e9700a33963193 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Gunther Dragoski Subject: Re: The future of Ada Date: 1999/03/12 Message-ID: <36E932BE.4FAEACE8@nospam.vf.space.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 454233267 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: <36E690FA.4B9C@sandia.gov> <7c7coa$nvt$4@plug.news.pipex.net> <1999Mar11.080820.1@eisner> <36E7DC3C.8B322F23@silver.jhuapl.edu> <36E7E5E4.9FB37144@pwfl.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Organization: Lockheed Martin EIS Mime-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1999-03-12T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Marin David Condic wrote: > > > We've got a very similar situation here, where we committed to the > Motorola M68040 ten or so years ago only to find out years later that > Motorola wasn't going to supply us with Mil Spec chips anymore. I would think that wouldn't be too big of an issue with the use of industrial components today. As a matter of fact Motorola still supports the 68040 up to 40 Mhz. Companies such as Thomson & Chip Supply can screen these from -40 to +105 deg C. They also offer these services for PowerPC 603e (check their roadmap website) in case you need to jump to next generation embedded processor as 68K family is dead. Of course the real question is how long the 603e will be supported before the G3 becomes the norm. > . Actually, you're much more at risk long term for changes in > hardware technology rather than software technology. As long as you've > got the same hardware and a compiler, you can very cheaply keep someone > maintaining it. I agree here if you are using a higher order language (such as ADA) but keep in mind that the processor upgrades due indeed result in software risks. For example if you upgrade from 68040 to lets say 603e processor how do you handle the L1 cache's. I find that timing analysis , task scheduling and code verification to be complex unless I turn off the caches. Its hard enough tracing 68040 code withs its single , smaller cache but trying dealing with both instruction and data caches of 16Kb. > (Care to hear about our guys who are maintaining some > _very_ old systems in an obscure assembler language because the program > can't afford a hardware upgrade?) Not really (just kidding !) I have been doing that for the last 5 years on a 20 year old obscure assembler. :)) However what I find is that the Software upgrade and certification is the prohibitive factor not the H/W design itself. Its cyclic , every 2.5 years or so the same question keeps getting asked , how much to upgrade to a 68K processor and guess what I pull out the same original detailed quote I did 10 years ago. When they see the S/W conversion costs they turn and walk away (see you in 2.5 years) thinking that somehow miraclously the cost will be reduced when they come back to ask the same question. G.D. Space Systems Engineering