Air Traffic Control
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Kernel Machine AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: How many more air disasters? Nigel Cook, Electronics
World, January 2003, p12 In July last year, problems with the existing system were highlighted by the tragic death of 71 people, including 50 school children, due to the confusion when Swiss air traffic control noticed too late that a Russian passenger jet and a Boeing 757 were on a collision path. The processing of extensive radar and other aircraft input information for European air space is a very big challenge, requiring a reliable system to warn air traffic controllers of impending disaster. So why has Ivor Catt's computer solution for Air Traffic Control been ignored by the authorities for 13 years? Nigel Cook reports. In Electronics World, March 1989, a contributor explained the longterm future of digital electronics. This is a system in which computers are networked adjacently, like places in the real world, but unlike the internet. An adjacent processor network is the ingenious solution proposed for the problem of Air Traffic Control: a grid network of computer processors, each automatically backed-up, and each only responsible for the air space of a fixed area. Figure 1 shows the new processing system, the Kernel computer, as proposed for safe, automated air traffic control.
This
system is capable of reliably tracking a vast air space and could
automatically alert human operators whenever the slant distance
between any two adjacent aircraft decreased past the safety factor.
Alternatively, if the air traffic controllers were busy or asleep,
it could also send an automatic warning message directly to the
pilot of the aircraft that needs to change course. The existing
suggestions are currently based on software solutions, which are
unsatisfactory. For such a life-and-death application, there is
a need for reliability through redundancy, and a single processor
system does not fit the bill. System freezes must be eliminated
in principle. Tracking aircraft individually by reliably using radar
and other inputs requires massive processing, and a safe international
system must withstand the rigours of continuous use for long periods,
without any software crashes or system overheat failure. The only
practicable way to do this is through using Ivor Catt's adjacent
processor network. Originally
suggested for a range of problems, including accurate prediction
of global warming and long-range weather, the scheme proposed by
Ivor was patented as the Kernel Machine, an array of 1,000 x 1,000
= 1,000,000 processors, each with its own memory and program, made
using wafer-scale integration with 1000 silicon wafers in a 32 by
32 wafer array. The data transfer rate between adjacent processors
is 100 Mb/s. Ivor
Catt's original computer development is the Catt Spiral (Wireless
World, July 1981), in which Sir Clive Sinclair's offshoot computer
company, Anamartic, invested £16 million. Although revolutionary,
it came to market and was highly praised by electronics journals.
The technology is proven by the successful introduction in 1989
of a solid-state memory called the Wafer Stack, based on a Catt
patent. The full article is available now in newsagents ELECTRONICS WORLD January 2003, pp12, 13, 14
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