I went to a Raytheon radar dog & pony show (demonstration for non English
speakers) last week. Their new model commercial radar was running simulator
software that was clearly buggy. So the sales guy shuts it down and waits
30 seconds and turns it back on. I joke "oh, you're rebooting it "

Up pops a typical bios screen with notes like 1.44M 3.5" floppy drive, and
then a "Windows XP" opening screen. Oh the horror. Bill Gates is in your
radar now.

When he opened the box all that was in there was a PC motherboard. This is
for a commercial ships radar with about a 18" display. I can't imagine I
was seeing more than $500 worth of hardware including the CRT. This unit
probably sells for 10-20x that amount.

Imagine if your radar connected to your sat phone etc. got a virus .


--
Evan Gatehouse

you'll have to rewrite my email address to get to me
ceilydh AT 3web dot net
(fools the spammers)

Is it possible that the demo unit was strictly a demo unit, intended to show the
look and feel of the system without actually having the guts? In my larcenous
youth, I did some of that. We called it 'prototyping'.

It could be worse. It might have been based on Win95.

Evan Gatehouse wrote:

I went to a Raytheon radar dog & pony show (demonstration for non English
speakers) last week. Their new model commercial radar was running simulator
software that was clearly buggy. So the sales guy shuts it down and waits
30 seconds and turns it back on. I joke "oh, you're rebooting it "

Up pops a typical bios screen with notes like 1.44M 3.5" floppy drive, and
then a "Windows XP" opening screen. Oh the horror. Bill Gates is in your
radar now.

When he opened the box all that was in there was a PC motherboard. This is
for a commercial ships radar with about a 18" display. I can't imagine I
was seeing more than $500 worth of hardware including the CRT. This unit
probably sells for 10-20x that amount.

Imagine if your radar connected to your sat phone etc. got a virus .

--
Evan Gatehouse

you'll have to rewrite my email address to get to me
ceilydh AT 3web dot net
(fools the spammers)

"Jim Conlin" wrote in message
...
Is it possible that the demo unit was strictly a demo unit, intended to
show the
look and feel of the system without actually having the guts? In my
larcenous
youth, I did some of that. We called it 'prototyping'.

It could be worse. It might have been based on Win95.

Nope. The sales guy confirmed that it was the real deal. If you think
about what a radar has to do, a typical PC can probably do all the graphics
processing pretty easily.


--
Evan Gatehouse

you'll have to rewrite my email address to get to me
ceilydh AT 3web dot net
(fools the spammers)f

On Thu, 11 Mar 2004 23:02:53 -0800, "Evan Gatehouse"
wrote:


"Jim Conlin" wrote in message
...
Is it possible that the demo unit was strictly a demo unit, intended to
show the
look and feel of the system without actually having the guts? In my
larcenous
youth, I did some of that. We called it 'prototyping'.

It could be worse. It might have been based on Win95.

Nope. The sales guy confirmed that it was the real deal. If you think
about what a radar has to do, a typical PC can probably do all the graphics
processing pretty easily.


IIRC the upgraded and refurbished Naval E2C planes stuff is done on
standard intel chips. militarised with surge protectors and other
anti-EMP hardware... but still stock intel chips.

Even in the best of all possible worlds, someone has to write the code.
Someone has to do the testing. Someone has to do the production design.
Someone has to borrow the money to pay for all that, and accept the risk
that the silly thing won't sell.

Now add to that the horror stories I shouldn't share about Raytheon from
direct and painful personal experience (as a customer for custom
systems, not an employee or retail customer) and the numbers aren't a
surprise. Ugly, but not a surprise.

dave

Evan Gatehouse wrote:
"Jim Conlin" wrote in message
...

Is it possible that the demo unit was strictly a demo unit, intended to

show the

look and feel of the system without actually having the guts? In my

larcenous

youth, I did some of that. We called it 'prototyping'.

It could be worse. It might have been based on Win95.


Nope. The sales guy confirmed that it was the real deal. If you think
about what a radar has to do, a typical PC can probably do all the graphics
processing pretty easily.


--
Evan Gatehouse

you'll have to rewrite my email address to get to me
ceilydh AT 3web dot net
(fools the spammers)f





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