[comp.realtime] Cost of Embedded Software

guthery@acw.UUCP (Scott Guthery) (07/25/90)

I recently visited IBM's Clear Lake facility and, in particular, the
On-Board Shuttle software effort.  This group has the distinction of
being the only SEI Level 5 organization in existence.  They write in
HAL and the code they cut costs about $3,000 per line.  That's about
100 times the cost of run-of-the-mill code and IMHO worth every penny.

							Cheers, Scott

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mjl@cs.rit.edu (Lutz Mike J) (07/25/90)

In article <30.UUL1.3#913@acw.UUCP> guthery@acw.UUCP (Scott Guthery) writes:
>I recently visited IBM's Clear Lake facility and, in particular, the
>On-Board Shuttle software effort.  This group has the distinction of
>being the only SEI Level 5 organization in existence.  They write in
>HAL and the code they cut costs about $3,000 per line.  That's about
>100 times the cost of run-of-the-mill code and IMHO worth every penny.

In Richard Feynman's scathing indictment of NASA's managerial and
engineering practices related to risk assessment and control--issued as
an appendix in the Challenger commission report--the one area he
singled out for praise was *software*. (A nice turn of events for those
of us who've taken potshots from traditional engineers years).  Am I
right in assuming that this software was developed at Clear Lake?

Mike Lutz
--
Mike Lutz	Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester NY
INTERNET:	mjl@cs.rit.edu

lcw@halley.UUCP (Larry Wolfe) (07/27/90)

In article <30.UUL1.3#913@acw.UUCP> guthery@acw.UUCP (Scott Guthery) writes:
>...  They write in
>HAL and the code they cut costs about $3,000 per line.  That's about
>100 times the cost of run-of-the-mill code and IMHO worth every penny.
>
>							Cheers, Scott
>

Well Scott,

IMHO, your HO would be more valuable if I could escape the notion that
there is no upper bound on what you think would be "worth every penny".
Unless there is a point at which you would think that some cost per line,
even for the space program, is ridiculous or at least a bad investment,
then it hardly matters in what language or system it is created.  It is
by your definition, good.

Perhaps I misunderstand.  If so, I stand corrected.

Larry Wolfe

...cs.utexas.edu!timex!lcw