I wonder would it be possible for these servers to be replaced by cloud infra? Then they can save space and only have network connection.
I can’t tell if this is satire or not.
Tour of the server room in the Airbus 350
61–70 of 187 posts
Re: Tour of the server room in the Airbus 350
#62Even assuming quadruple redundancy, seven nines uptime and resilience to extreme conditions and cosmic rays, this looks way way bigger than it should be. One explanation could be that the certification process for anything aviation related is so expensive and slow that we're actually looking at tech from 15+ years ago.
Big replaceable components that can be serviced easily without special tools so long as no board-level fixes are necessary - and enough customization done at low enough numbers you don't build single board stuff for it, you build bigger reusable modules connected by common buses.
Re: Tour of the server room in the Airbus 350
#63Later in the video at 4:48 approx he demonstrates the nav computer GUI in the cockpit and I cringed when he used the touchscreen and there was a lag of about 2-5 (!) seconds after every interaction. My... god.... I kind of almost heard the mechanical drive seeking and reading and searching the heavily fragmented map data...
Seriously, for $329 you can get an iPad with Foreflight that’s 100x smoother.
Re: Tour of the server room in the Airbus 350
#64Re: Tour of the server room in the Airbus 350
#65Later in the video at 4:48 approx he demonstrates the nav computer GUI in the cockpit and I cringed when he used the touchscreen and there was a lag of about 2-5 (!) seconds after every interaction. My... god.... I kind of almost heard the mechanical drive seeking and reading and searching the heavily fragmented map data...
You would imagine the software and hardware should be several levels above what we would expect to get from even premium brands such as Apple M1 etc. Because it's hard to imagine the pilot trying to restart a piece of equipment in an emergency and getting a blank white screen and a "do you want to send an error report" message coming up.
Re: Tour of the server room in the Airbus 350
#66> unauthorized persons can not get there for reasons I will not show Not sure what else can be there, I mean it's already a critical infrastructure of the plane what we saw
He might mean that what happens if you trespass won't be shown! There might be a gas release system that would neutralise an attacker or perhaps just open the door to the hold so they freeze!
I doubt there’s actually a defense system. The only way inside from within the plane is from the cockpit and if there’s an intruder in the cockpit they can already do more damage without needing to go below.
Re: Tour of the server room in the Airbus 350
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is no excuse. It was possible to create almost instantly responsive UIs more than 20 years ago.
Since we don't know anything about the internals, it's safe to say the goal was "good enough and certified" vs. "snappy but no guarantees it works correctly 100% of the time". This is an airplane after all, not a consumer-grade gadget.
They might have different standards and I'm not a pilot, but in my opinion having multiple seconds of UI lag in vitally important interfaces is not good enough nor deserves certification.
Re: Tour of the server room in the Airbus 350
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was joking obviously but that would the the answer to the marketing manager.
Ah you were saying serve ads on the flightdeck displays! Ok that's innovative- I'd recommend featuring big watches, mirrored sunglasses and divorce lawyers.
Why not just promote ads based on their conversations like everyone else?
Re: Tour of the server room in the Airbus 350
#69I always worry around this type of mess-of-wires setups, especially if it's in cramped space where an errant elbow can dislodge something. Shouldn't there be covers on these things?
It will take a lot more than an elbow to dislodge an avionics wiring harness. These things are tough
Re: Tour of the server room in the Airbus 350
#70I wonder would it be possible for these servers to be replaced by cloud infra? Then they can save space and only have network connection.
loose connection plane goes down sounds like a good plan :)