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From: Ashton K on 16 Mar 2010 15:48
Ted DeLoggio <tdeloggio(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> Rod Pemberton wrote:
>> "spinoza1111" <spinoza1111(a)yahoo.com> wrote in message
>> news:8e7a446f-d1b3-4566-a9cb-a50dcee719cc(a)s25g2000prd.googlegroups.com...
>>> Steve Wozniak has asked if the Toyota failures aren't software.
>>
>> Unlikely...
>>
>> No offense to the brilliant individuals at MS, but if automotive engineers,
>> esp. EE's, designed software, it wouldn't crash. Automotive companies
>> wouldn't be able to sell any cars if they had the many frequent failures of
>> MS Windows. Could you imagine the negative outcomes, the liability, the
>> complaints, if an automobile's engine controller software BSODed even once?
>>
>
> <snip>
>
>>
>>
>> Rod Pemberton
>>
>>
>
>
> IMO the differences in environment and size between an ECU and a PC
> operating system are sufficient to prohibit meaningful comparison.
>

The Toyota software is embedded, Windows/Linux/OSX/Whatever are not. They're
multi-process (and multi-processor at times) systems connected to *the internet*.
They both require fantastically different development models.

If automotive engineers designed operating systems, they wouldn't crash. They also
probably wouldn't run too much either. Which is not to bash the automotive programmers
(save the ones at Toyota), they understand (or should) the differences between
making a car, and making a full blown OS.

--Ashton
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