Semiconductor Lifeline Keeps Fighter Jets in the Air

Semiconductor Lifeline Keeps Fighter Jets in the Air(spectrum.ieee.org)

38 points by rbanffy 4 days ago | 10 comments

ggm 1 hour ago |

Turtles all the way down and up: Vehicle makers sourcing plug-compatible devices which emulate floppy drives for updating tank s/w, Airlines sourcing print and terminals emulating IBM mainframe era dependencies for gate check processes.

Talking of mainframes, many core bank registry functions are emulations of prior systems long embedded into architectures now themselves superseded. Support for tech archaisms has long roots.

RossBencina 50 minutes ago | |

IBM mainframes were for a very long time built and sold on the premise of providing reliable emulation of previous generations weren't they.

bitwize 34 minutes ago | |

There's also like one company still manufacturing CRTs, and their market is exclusively military and heavy-industrial, replacements for old fighter-jet HUDs and the like:

https://www.thomaselectronics.com/avionics/head-up-display/

I'm sure there's at least one wealthy Smash Bros. enthusiast willing to pay their asking price and hook up one of their HUDs to a Gamecube to play Melee though.

CaliforniaKarl 2 hours ago |

This makes me think of Jazz Semiconductor in Newport Beach. I think they’re Tower Semiconductor now, but I believe they’re still there, a small fab in SoCal that I assume is making obscure, important stuff.

egl2020 2 hours ago |

Nothing new under the sun: Strobe Data did this decades years ago for things like PDP-11s (http://www.strobedata.com/home/pioneer10.html) and DG Novas.

fmajid 2 hours ago |

It's surprising the DoD didn't require stockpiles of spares for every electronic component in these phenomenally expensive and long-lived weapon systems. This is after all the one arm of the Federal Government that is both good at logistics and planning, and was able to deliver frozen ice cream and other amenities to the most remote Forward Operating Bases in Afghanistan.

chiph 2 hours ago | |

They generally do stock parts. I was able to order a part when I was in the USAF for a near-obsolete machine (which still used core memory!) and it showed up within a week. Still in it's original EMP and environmental-proof packaging from the late 1960's.

Aircraft can get their service life extended a couple of times before they're parked for good (the B-52 is an extreme example). And the supply system eventually runs out. First of replaceable modules, then the boards, and now the chips.

iberator 33 minutes ago | |

I'm sure they do. They also require double sourcing of components: 2 separate companies at once

bear8642 3 hours ago |

> "[Phoenix] repackages off-the-shelf semiconductors into devices that are virtually identical to the phased-out chips."

I'm slightly surprised that _virtually_ identical chips are allowed. I expected truly identical chips to be required…

dylan604 15 minutes ago | |

At some point, I'd assume that beggars can't be choosers. If the new chip works and does not introduce issues while still allowing the plane to continue to fly, I'm guessing they'll take the plane still flying.

RossBencina 43 minutes ago | |

I guess it depends on your definition of "allowed" vs "required". I believe that in commercial aerospace applications a device change (e.g. change of manufacturing process or process parameters, let alone different masks) would require the entire assembly to be recertified. That's why Boeing procures all spares for the product lifetime up front.