FC: Microsoft representative replies to Windows/aircraft carrier story (fwd)

[William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2000 17:22:36 -0400
From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
To: politech () politechbot com
Cc: jsampson () microsoft com, cyber () IBPINC com, watha () monitortan com
Subject: FC: Microsoft representative replies to Windows/aircraft carrier story


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From: "John Sampson (LCA)" <jsampson () microsoft com>
To: "'declan () well com'" <declan () well com>
Subject: RE: MS Windows will control new U.S. Navy aircraft carrier (no joke!)
Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2000 13:21:54 -0700

Declan - GCN followed up the story cited below with this one
(http://www.gcn.com/archives/gcn/1998/november9/6.htm) in which the
same author wrote:

"Human error, not Microsoft Windows NT, was the cause of a LAN failure
aboard the Aegis cruiser USS Yorktown that left the Smart Ship dead in
the water for nearly three hours last fall during maneuvers near Cape
Charles, Va., Navy officials said.

The Yorktown last September suffered an engineering LAN casualty when
a petty officer calibrating a fuel valve entered a zero into a
shipboard database, officials said. The resulting database overload
caused the ship's LAN, including 27 dual 200-MHz Pentium Pro miniature
remote terminal units, to crash, they said.

The petty officer, who has since left the Navy, fed the bad data into
the Remote Data Base Manager, a Standard Monitoring Control System
application. SMCS, developed by Canadian Aviation Electronics Inc. of
Toronto, allows sailors to monitor the ship's engineering and
propulsion plant for potential casualties."

"'There was a problem in that this one valve was closed, but SMCS
wasn't indicating it as such,' said Cmdr. Eric Sweigard, the
Yorktown's commanding officer. 'So this petty officer started playing
with the data.'"

- John

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> From: "Roger J. Jones" <cyber () IBPINC com>
> To: "'declan () well com'" <declan () well com>, politech () politechbot com
> Cc: watha () monitortan com
> Subject: RE: More on controlling Navy's aircraft carriers with MS Windows
> Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2000 15:59:46 -0500
> X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21)
>
> Actually - not a contradiction. The systems you describe are not
> part of the current on bard Windows NT suite. The interesting
> question is what part of the new systems will run some version of
> Windows NT? If you look at the premier SCADA vendors - Intellution
> and WonderWare - they are moving quickly to the NT platform.
> (SCADA by the way is a software "middleware" used in commercial
> applications as a more user friendly interface to the PLC -
> programmable logic controllers that run manufacturing equipment
> such as conveyor belts, diverters, scanners, label readers, etc.)
> So the concept of the engineering plant running a
> PLC/SCADA/Windows NT software network is not far fetched.
>
> The technical question here is "Can Windows NT support real time
> process control applications?" Intellution (part of Emerson
> Electric) and WonderWare clearly think it can. So do hundreds if
> not thousands of their customers. So does, apparently, the US
> Navy.

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> From: "Hiawatha Bray" <watha () monitortan com>
> To: "Roger J. Jones" <cyber () IBPINC com>, <declan () well com>,
>         <politech () politechbot com>
> Subject: RE: More on controlling Navy's aircraft carriers with MS Windows
> Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2000 17:08:03 -0400
> X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2910.0)
> Importance: Normal
>
> Oh, I don't see it as a contradiction.  I see it as news that those Navy
> gearheads may not welcome.  Soon they may be required to use NT to run key
> systems.  They left me with the impression that such a decision wouldn't sit
> too well with 'em...
>
> Hiawatha

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