Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

In four years of reading Cassini updates, they have never once mentioned worrying about software errors due to cosmic rays. And this is without any atmospheric protection at all; we have 100 miles of atmosphere.

They have mentioned that their solid state relays trip 2 or 3 times a year due to cosmic rays. I'm not sure how comparable those are to DIMMs, but it does suggest that the author's claim of one error per day is a bit off...




Pretty much anything launched into space uses radiation-hardened electronics. I don't know what Cassini has on board, but this is popular: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_RAD6000


We are much more shielded on Earth.




Consider applying for YC's Spring batch! Applications are open till Feb 11.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: