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Technology Explained – Computers
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Digital Computers in Aviation
The digital computer is probably the most significant of all the technological developments of the latter half of the twentieth century. It offers intelligence to previously’ dumb’ systems, enables self-testing and with redundancy, vastly increases operational reliability. Compared to its closest competitor, the analogue computer, it is far more flexible and much easier to produce equivalent accuracy.
The evolution of the digital computer has occurred at a pace unsurpassed in the history of technology; in a mere thirty years we have seen machines occupying whole buildings eclipsed in capabilities by single silicon chips. State-of-the-art electronics have been and are the critical factor in the development of the computer.
Vacuum tubes and electromagnetic relays were rapidly replaced in the 1950s by the bipolar transistor. Bipolar transistors were to hold their ground for quite some time, the early 1960s witnessing the development of the Integrated Circuit, a chip of silicon with more than one transistor on it, accompanied by other electronic components and interconnections. The I. C. meant at least a tenfold decrease in size and a substantial decrease in power consumption. Fast and complex computers could be built up with individual I. C. s, but this was, by no means, the end of the story. The somewhat slower, but far more compact and less demanding in power Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor appeared. The MOS transistor allowed an even higher packing density on the chip itself, and this led to a revolutionary development, the Microprocessor. The micro is, in fact, a whole computer integrated onto a single chip. Though much slower and less capable than full-size computers, the microprocessor is more than adequate for a vast number of relatively simple tasks; as it is relatively cheap, several may be used at once. The total effect is the building of ‘intelligence’ into previously unheard-of places, i.e. displays, sensors, and regulators. As the behaviour of the system is then given by the program residing in the memory of the micro, altering the program provides an extremely flexible way of modifying performance.
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