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Lockheed has an opening for engineers with VAX experience for the F22

lockheedmartinjobs.com

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Re: Lockheed has an opening for engineers with VAX experience for the F22

#31

Post by caymanjim »

proy24 wrote: post #13

I think all engineers with VAX experience are extinct ...or retired.

I'm 46, and my first real job was as a computer operator (sysadmin-lite) for VAX/VMS systems back in 1991. At the time, VAX/VMS systems were computing powerhouses. In comparison, almost all Unix-based systems outside of AT&T were toys or performed light computing work (even DEC's own VAX/Ultrix). VAX systems were still high-end mainframe computers well into the 90s. VMS had some great features back then which Unix only adopted later.

Re: Lockheed has an opening for engineers with VAX experience for the F22

#32

Post by jabl »

alex_hitchins wrote: post #29
Phlarp wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's insane. A 3d matrix of ferrite rings suspended by wire would seem (to me) somewhat sensitive to vibrations or gforces. Military gonna military I guess.

I seem to recall something along the lines of large bombers running valves as they were less prone to effects of EMP around nuclear blasts. Not sure if this perhaps something similar?

In one of the documentaries about the Vulcan raid on the Falklands (1982), one of the pilots interviewed remarked that somebody flying Avro Lancasters in WWII would have felt right at home in the cockpit of the Avro Vulcan. E.g. the navigator used mechanical clocks to keep track of when to turn, and so on.

Not sure if this was a conscious decision wrt EMP, or was it just that they were in a hurry to develop a jet bomber for delivering nukes and they reused existing stuff as much as possible.

Re: Lockheed has an opening for engineers with VAX experience for the F22

#33

Post by tirpen »

Phlarp wrote: post #21
urban_winter wrote: post #18

I started my career working for British Aerospace in 1989. We used VAX/VMS as our development platform (Code was CORAL 66 and then ADA). I spent some time supporting the Sea Harrier flight test operations - so I would have fitted this job perfectly about 28 years ago!). I'd like to say that I'm astonished that modern aircraft still use the 1553 bus, but nothing surprises me when it comes to the use of stone-age tech…

That's insane. A 3d matrix of ferrite rings suspended by wire would seem (to me) somewhat sensitive to vibrations or gforces. Military gonna military I guess.

For airplanes flying at high altitudes with modern computers, random bit flips from comsmic radiation is actually a very real threat that has to be considered. IIRC there's about a factor of about 300x more radiation at 30000 ft and 900x at 60000 ft.

Core memory is a lot less sensitive to this than most memory types, so it makes some sense to store the most flight critical data in such a memory.

Re: Lockheed has an opening for engineers with VAX experience for the F22

#34

Post by rangibaby »

alex_hitchins wrote: post #29
Phlarp wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's insane. A 3d matrix of ferrite rings suspended by wire would seem (to me) somewhat sensitive to vibrations or gforces. Military gonna military I guess.

I seem to recall something along the lines of large bombers running valves as they were less prone to effects of EMP around nuclear blasts. Not sure if this perhaps something similar?

From wiki for the MiG-25:

The majority of the on-board avionics were based on vacuum-tube technology, not solid-state electronics. Although they represented aging technology, vacuum tubes were more tolerant of temperature extremes, thereby removing the need for environmental controls in the avionics bays. With the use of vacuum tubes, the MiG-25P's original Smerch-A (Tornado, NATO reporting name "Foxfire") radar had enormous power – about 600 kilowatts. As with most Soviet aircraft, the MiG-25 was designed to be as robust as possible. The use of vacuum tubes also made the aircraft's systems resistant to an electromagnetic pulse, for example after a nuclear blast

Re: Lockheed has an opening for engineers with VAX experience for the F22

#37

Post by anyfoo »

sgillen wrote: post #30
anyfoo wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only storage medium I can spontaneously think of where 1s are heavier than 0s is punch cards. I hope that is not the current primary storage method in the aerospace industry.

Well... technically most hard drives should change weight depending on their contents: https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/31326/is-a-hard-...

Oh wow. And now that I read this, it dawned on me that any memory technology that is based on storing charge (like DRAM) will have actual, albeit also very very theoretical, mass differences depending on bit value as well...

Re: Lockheed has an opening for engineers with VAX experience for the F22

#38

Post by NeedMoreTea »

jabl wrote: post #32
alex_hitchins wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I seem to recall something along the lines of large bombers running valves as they were less prone to effects of EMP around nuclear blasts. Not sure if this perhaps something similar?

In one of the documentaries about the Vulcan raid on the Falklands (1982), one of the pilots interviewed remarked that somebody flying Avro Lancasters in WWII would have felt right at home in the cockpit of the Avro Vulcan. E.g. the navigator used mechanical clocks to keep track of when to turn, and so on. Not sure if this was a conscious decision wrt EMP, or was it just that they were in a hurry to develop a jet bom…

Not in the least surprising. The Vulcan prototype, the 707, first flew in 1949. They even had a mount for the old Lancaster bomb sight - though that was mostly used for a camera.

Flight engineer and radar operator in the seats behind would have got the fancy new (for the early 50s) electronic things.

Re: Lockheed has an opening for engineers with VAX experience for the F22

#39

Post by metaphor »

urban_winter wrote: post #18

I started my career working for British Aerospace in 1989. We used VAX/VMS as our development platform (Code was CORAL 66 and then ADA). I spent some time supporting the Sea Harrier flight test operations - so I would have fitted this job perfectly about 28 years ago!). I'd like to say that I'm astonished that modern aircraft still use the 1553 bus, but nothing surprises me when it comes to the use of stone-age tech…

> I'd like to say that I'm astonished that modern aircraft still use the 1553 bus...

What's wrong with 1553? It's reliable, battle-tested, and the latest revision C was published 28-Feb-2018. In contrast, the RS-232 PHY dates back to 1960, yet it's quite alive and well in modern commercial devices. As a consolation, be glad you've never had to deal with the monster that is STANAG 5516/MIL-STD-6016...if there was such a thing as a "modern" interface standard whose sheer page count (11,410 pages!) would make any sensible engineer reconsider future career prospects.

Re: Lockheed has an opening for engineers with VAX experience for the F22

#40

Post by linker3000 »

caymanjim wrote: post #31
proy24 wrote: post #13

I think all engineers with VAX experience are extinct ...or retired.

I'm 46, and my first real job was as a computer operator (sysadmin-lite) for VAX/VMS systems back in 1991. At the time, VAX/VMS systems were computing powerhouses. In comparison, almost all Unix-based systems outside of AT&T were toys or performed light computing work (even DEC's own VAX/Ultrix). VAX systems were still high-end mainframe computers well into the 90s. VMS had some great features back then which Unix on…

Similar story - I'm 53 and was a VAX/VMS sysadmin during my apprenticeship years working for a flight simulator company in the UK; that would be around 1984. I miss my 11/750.
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