Aihnss.658
net.columbia
utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!ARPAVAX:mhtsa!ihnss!karn
Thu Dec 10 15:55:42 1981
Shuttle Spill
AP Mon 10-26-81 1100
Software Spill Endangers Shuttle Launch Date
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla-- Technicians are still assessing the damage
caused by a mishap that occurred while loading over 128,000 bytes
of highly volatile software into the Columbia's five computers.
Several dozen silicon integrated circuits were reported to have fallen
off the circuit boards after the RS-232 connector in the download
cable popped loose and spilled sseveral thousand words of
code, including reverse-GOTOs, down the RAM boards.
"It really ate the RTV bonding off those ICs," said spokesman Ed
Dikes. "Those circuits were laid out by Computer Science PhD types
to handle high-level structured programs, and when those GOTOs
hit them, they just fell right off the circuit boards."
Software engineers at the Cape are at a loss to explain how the
GOTOs got into the code. According to Dikes, current speculation
is that the deadly bugs developed while the software was sitting
in storage on the disk packs for several months.
Plans call for installation of a UNIX "final filter" in the
download driver to block out the corrosive bytes.
Meanwhile, technicians are cleaning the tacky ill-structured
GOTO statements off the deflowered silicon chips, preparatory
to bonding them back to the substrate. "Hopefully, we can
brainwash the RAM chips into forgetting they ever heard any
of that BASIC schlock," said Dikes.
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