Glass panels: what OS?

I've been wondering...

What underlying OS do the various glass panels (Avidyne, Garmin, etc.)
use? It might actually make me think twice about buying a particular
system if I knew that (for example) it was Windows underneath.

I would think that the glass panel folks would be using one of the
real-time OS's that are designed for industrial applications, but I
don't know for a fact.

--
Bruce Horn, Chief Technical Officer, Marketocracy, Inc.

Bruce Horn writes:

I've been wondering...

Watch it...

What underlying OS do the various glass panels (Avidyne, Garmin, etc.)
use? It might actually make me think twice about buying a particular
system if I knew that (for example) it was Windows underneath.

The MX20 has Embedded NT.

The GNS[4,5]30 has some Garmin specific stuff.

No idea about the rest.

I would think that the glass panel folks would be using one of the
real-time OS's that are designed for industrial applications, but I
don't know for a fact.

I suspect a surprising number of these MFDish things run NT...

-jav

In article , Javier Henderson
wrote:

I would think that the glass panel folks would be using one of the
real-time OS's that are designed for industrial applications, but I
don't know for a fact.

I suspect a surprising number of these MFDish things run NT...

While at least one MFD I know of runs NT, I would be shocked if
any PFD runs NT.

--
Bob Noel

Bruce Horn writes:

What underlying OS do the various glass panels (Avidyne, Garmin, etc.)
use?

The MX-20 has some form of WinNT. I asked reps at Oshkosh about
several units a couple years ago. I was told that realize MS
Windows-based systems aren't appropriate for more complex units.
I forget what the tipping point was. (approach certified?)

It might actually make me think twice about buying a particular
system if I knew that (for example) it was Windows underneath.

Yeah, I've still got a big hole in my panel that's waiting for a
good solution.

I would think that the glass panel folks would be using one of the
real-time OS's that are designed for industrial applications, but I
don't know for a fact.

I recall discussion somewhere about how basing such systems on
non-proprietary software might be easier to certify because of
the greater exposure of the underlying system. I certainly like
the sound of that.

--kyler

In a previous article, Kyler Laird said:
Bruce Horn writes:
What underlying OS do the various glass panels (Avidyne, Garmin, etc.)
use?

The MX-20 has some form of WinNT. I asked reps at Oshkosh about
several units a couple years ago. I was told that realize MS
Windows-based systems aren't appropriate for more complex units.
I forget what the tipping point was. (approach certified?)

I remember a comp.risks article many years ago where one maker of avionics
was said to prefer Windows because if something went wrong with the OS,
somebody else would have to fix it, and another maker of avionics was said
to prefer an open source OS because if something went wrong with the OS,
they didn't have to wait for somebody else to fix it.


--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
D: is just a data disk. That's why it's called "D", for "DATA".
C: is the Windows OS disk, so it's called "C", for "CRAP".
-- David P. Murphy

Bruce Horn wrote in message ...
I've been wondering...

What underlying OS do the various glass panels (Avidyne, Garmin, etc.)
use? It might actually make me think twice about buying a particular
system if I knew that (for example) it was Windows underneath.

I would think that the glass panel folks would be using one of the
real-time OS's that are designed for industrial applications, but I
don't know for a fact.

If I recall correctly, the MX-20 MFD runs on a version of Win NT. The
Garmin 430/530 uses a proprietary OS.

I believe a lot of the displays use versions of embedded real time
operating systems (RTOS) that are versions of Linux. These aren't
your standard Red Hat versions, but are purchased from companies that
line test the OS and provide support. The OS can be documented to
comply with RTCA DO-178B requirements. One of the vendors is TimeSys,
and I think their OS is called Integrity. The cost of the support
consists of annual seat licenses for the developer. The benefit is
that the software is free. No licensing fee on a per-unit basis.

Another popular OS is VxWorks. It is supposed to be a good OS, but
there are licensing fees associated.

"Bruce Horn" wrote in message
news
I've been wondering...

What underlying OS do the various glass panels (Avidyne, Garmin, etc.)
use? It might actually make me think twice about buying a particular
system if I knew that (for example) it was Windows underneath.

The MX-20 runs plain vanilla Windows NT 4.0. I don't know why anyone except
software bigots would have a problem with that. There have been no known
problems with the OS in this application.

The Garmin G-1000 runs a proprietary OS.

On Wed, 23 Jun 2004 08:15:41 -0700, C J Campbell wrote:


"Bruce Horn" wrote in message
news
I've been wondering...

What underlying OS do the various glass panels (Avidyne, Garmin, etc.)
use? It might actually make me think twice about buying a particular
system if I knew that (for example) it was Windows underneath.

The MX-20 runs plain vanilla Windows NT 4.0. I don't know why anyone except
software bigots would have a problem with that. There have been no known
problems with the OS in this application.

Well, chances are, it's actually embedded NT, but I'll defer if you
factually know otherwise. The concern is, NT has a long history of
crashing and being less than stable. This is true of embedded NT, but to
a much lessor degree. So, for someone to have concern about the heart of
an important navigation tool, I think falls well outside of simple OS
bigotry.

There are many, many, excellent and respected embedded OSs. It just so
happens that anything from Microsoft tends to be on the bottom of the list
of stable and respected OSs. So, while you might dismiss it, I don't
think it reason enough to ignore the concern. Having said that, if real
world use shows the device to be rock solid, then I think that speaks
volumes, clearly out weighing the voice of concern.


Cheers,

Greg Copeland

(Paul Tomblin) writes:

I remember a comp.risks article many years ago where one maker of avionics
was said to prefer Windows because if something went wrong with the OS,
somebody else would have to fix it,

*That* would be funny. I can imagine a bunch of panels being labeled "inop"
until Microsoft decides it wants to generate a fix.

and another maker of avionics was said
to prefer an open source OS because if something went wrong with the OS,
they didn't have to wait for somebody else to fix it.

Or they *could* also let/pay someone else to fix it also. But at least
they can't play the "Oh, we're so sorry that your plane is now useless but
it's really out of our hands..." bit.

--kyler

Kyler Laird wrote:

(Paul Tomblin) writes:

I remember a comp.risks article many years ago where one maker of avionics
was said to prefer Windows because if something went wrong with the OS,
somebody else would have to fix it,

*That* would be funny. I can imagine a bunch of panels being labeled
"inop" until Microsoft decides it wants to generate a fix.


Worse: A virus comes with a Jepp database upgrade. Yikes!

- Andrew