Bill Daniels wrote:


"André Somers" wrote in message
...

What are your thoughts on Real-Time Linux for this application?

I guess that depends on what you want to do with it. For one, you can't
use
it for primairy instruments, at least not here. The greatest power of
using
a computer is where it is used now too: navigational aid and
flightcomputer
functions. For that, you don't really need a RT system IMHO.

André


Well, you probably couldn't CERTIFY a computer display for the primary
instruments (without a lot of money) but by displaying the primary
instrument data on the computer screen, all the flight data would be in
one
place and easy to read. Keep the old primary instruments in the panel to
keep things legal and just hinge the thin computer screen over them so
that if you need to peek just lift the screen.
Apart from the legal aspects, I don't really see many advantages to making
the primairy instruments electronic (or obscuring them with a screen,wich
is illegal here I think). The "normal" instruments are very easy to
interpret (it has been shown that round dials are by far the easiest to
comprehend for the human brain: judging angles is easier than judging a
distance or reading and interpretting a figure.) That doesn't say that you
couldn't use the data also on the screen, but I would not make it primairy.
An electronic system *is* more likely to fail, if only due to poor battery
conditions.
Having said that, I haven't found a useable x86 system yet. Maybe I'm
looking in the wrong place, but a system like a VIA EPIA board still takes
about 30W. Using a 12V battery, that means 2,5A. That's a heavy load; my
battery would last maybe two, max three hours. And that is without a
screen...

André