Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill
that seems to reveal an odd robot building engineering concept.
why wouldn't you build a robot like that with a design that uses computing technology only a few generations old?
couldn't you set up the engineering process so the computing functions can be updated as you go along?
I understand one needs to write all kinds of specialized programs, but, still, seems odd that they would accept such limitations.
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Millions and millions of existing lines of test code using that particular chipset which isn't compatible with today's chipsets. The OS that has been designed to handle these has been written over the years. They have extremely low power versions of these, while today's chips are still using 35-65 watts (the Curiosity has a total power output of 105 watts (I think)).
Basically, they picked the best chip at the time, wrote the OS around it - it was compatible with prior chips, does embedded very well, is reliable, true and tested, and they have millions of lines of code to support it.
In order to use newer chips, we have to fix their power consumption, deal with segmented memory architectures, etc. Though, segmented memory architecture is less noticeable now with 64bit CPUs.