sman@prandtl.nas.nasa.gov (Sekong Man) (01/10/90)
From: sman@prandtl.nas.nasa.gov (Sekong Man) In <12934@cbnews.ATT.COM> Jon Steinbach speculated that B-2 needs a computer >.........powerful >enough to do stealth bomber problems like stable flight, probably >approaches Y-MP ..... The B-2 configuration is not inherently unstable and stealth features probably has less to do with stability than performance (eg. relaxed stability for higher lift). Even if it is naturally unstable, the computing power required just to stablize it is minuscule, eg a 4 bit micro. I cannot imagine how a single aircraft can absorb the power of a YMP. Although radar signal or image processing can be very computation intensive, B-2 is not E-2(or E-7) and for its mission I guess 1 VPU is probably enough. Anyone has any idea about the computing power requirment of a bomber? As a comparison, I remember the S-3 Viking used to have a 8 bit 64K word machine for its ASW mission, eg sonar return processing and signature records.