Cruise Missle has a G4 apple processor!!!!

jcjc
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I was listening to KRLA 870am talk radio the other day and they were talking to a weapons expert. he said that the cruise missle could fly through a window from two hundread miles away and that is had the same processor that an apple powermac G4 had. I like to think that the millitary bought up all of the cubes.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 51
    airslufairsluf Posts: 1,861member
  • Reply 2 of 51
    jcjc Posts: 342member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by AirSluf

    It takes 8-10 years to get a design upgrade into production, still too soon for G4's even in the newest versions.



    the new cruise weapons use GPS tracking which is an amazing upgrade from the previous gulf war which was in 1991



    Technology does not freeze in the military, the stealth fighter is a proven design and the processor does an acceptable job as it is controlled by a pilot. missle and computer stuff such as the patriot missle were proven to be far less than perfect in 1991 (the last gulf war) so it stands to reason that an upgrade was due. So it would follow that new military inovations would be cutting edge, the best of the best, Once it is in place it could take 10 years before the next upgrade however.



    you may be right that it takes 8-10 years to get a design upgrade into production, but it has been 11 years since the last gulf war.
  • Reply 3 of 51
    powerdocpowerdoc Posts: 8,123member
    Great new !!!, it's the first time that a G4 has explosive performances
  • Reply 4 of 51
    cosmocosmo Posts: 662member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by JC

    the new cruise weapons use GPS tracking which is an amazing upgrade from the previous gulf war which was in 1991



    Technology does not freeze in the military, the stealth fighter is a proven design and the processor does an acceptable job as it is controlled by a pilot. missle and computer stuff such as the patriot missle were proven to be far less than perfect in 1991 (the last gulf war) so it stands to reason that an upgrade was due. So it would follow that new military inovations would be cutting edge, the best of the best, Once it is in place it could take 10 years before the next upgrade however.



    you may be right that it takes 8-10 years to get a design upgrade into production, but it has been 11 years since the last gulf war.




    Just to clarify: the F-117 stealth fighter is different from the F-22 Raptor.

    The F-117 was used during the 1991 Gulf war and is proven technoledgy. The F-22 has not yet entered service and will not until 2010 (if the schedule remains the same). Both aircraft are stealth but the F-117 is used as a bomber, is subsonic and basically SOL if it is found by the enemy. The F-22 on the other hand is the United States' next air domincance figher and will replace the F-15. I assume that the chip mentioned before is being used in the upcoming F-22 because the design has been in the works since the early-mid 90s.
  • Reply 5 of 51
    jcjc Posts: 342member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Cosmo

    ... I assume that the chip mentioned before is being used in the upcoming F-22 because the design has been in the works since the early-mid 90s.



    Just because the design has been in the works since the early mid 90's I would not make the assumption that they have not made use of newer computer technology such as GPS tracking. These kinds of things are not designed in a vacume.

    My dad was a machinist and he worked on a lot of military projects. computer, radar,GPS,tracking and communications are the most frequently upgradable items in a military device such as a plane or missle.



    thanks for the info on the F-22 I was not aware of that
  • Reply 6 of 51
    I hope this is a lie. I'd like to think that instruments of genocide use Intel and Microsoft bullshit. Just seems like it'd be fitting.



    . . . and now that I've turned this intensely political, I'll do the cowardly thing and never revisit this thread, so fight amongst yourselves.
  • Reply 7 of 51
    Embedded processors are usually 10-15 years behind the curve.

    If everything had to have the latest technology nothing would ever be finished.



    The Jupiter probe set for launch in 2009 is going to be based on the G3, which at that point will be 12 years old.
  • Reply 8 of 51
    jcjc Posts: 342member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Stagflation Steve

    Embedded processors are usually 10-15 years behind the curve.

    If everything had to have the latest technology nothing would ever be finished.



    The Jupiter probe set for launch in 2009 is going to be based on the G3, which at that point will be 12 years old.




    Yes, but GPS is new. Our current weapons are tomorrows technology and the processors are current.



    I am not guessing. This is what the weapons expert said on the talk radio show that I heard.



    I am not saying that all of our weapons are this advanced. But, the cruise missles are.



    The experts to be suspected that a war was coming for quite awhile. The surgical bombing that is happening in bagdad could not happen the way that it has with 10 or 12 year old technology.



    It is pretty much accepted now that macs are more reliable than PCs (even among PC users). Why wouldn't the militarry use the best processors?



    Why is this so hard to believe??
  • Reply 9 of 51
    I am not talking about technology as a whole, i am talking about the actual CPU, and even if it is PowerPC based, it isn't going to be Macintosh based, it would be running on embedded firmware.



    Not to mention, Talk Radio is known for attracting people who talk out their ass
  • Reply 10 of 51
    airslufairsluf Posts: 1,861member
  • Reply 11 of 51
    jcjc Posts: 342member
    whoa boy,

    I am by no means an expert on the subject at all



    So if you think that the expert that I heard on the radio is guessing, and quite wrong based on your certian degree of subject knowledge, then I can not dispute you.



    I have not been swayed from my opinion. the expert on the talk show seamed to know what he was talking about and I have no reason to dispute him. I wish I could remember more details of what he said. or what his name was



    I heard what I heard and I beleave it

    We have to agree to disagree



    Sigh

    say la vee



    PS. Thanks for all of the information though. I have learned a lot and this topic has been fun,





  • Reply 12 of 51
    reynardreynard Posts: 160member
    If it is indeed a G4, is Apple giving them the replacement deal on the power supplies so the enemy can't hear them coming in from 20 miles away?
  • Reply 13 of 51
    Quote:

    Originally posted by JC

    ... had the same processor that an apple powermac G4 had.



    Are you sure he didn't mean Apple ][ instead? Maybe it's running the feared 6502?



    This would be an upgrade from the Pioneer probe, which had all of 4k of ROM.



    (Can you imagine an advanced alien race finding our early probes? Like the gold album on Voyager? They'd be laughing so hard at our "technology" that they'd fly to our solar system just to kick our butts for fun.)
  • Reply 14 of 51
    airslufairsluf Posts: 1,861member
  • Reply 15 of 51
    curiousuburbcuriousuburb Posts: 3,325member
    hey man, that golden record is better listening than most gold albums



    compiled by carl sagan



    NASA Voyager Golden Record (Flash/HTML) Site



    lots of interesting info and samples... fun for kids too.
  • Reply 16 of 51
    Quote:

    Originally posted by curiousuburb

    hey man, that golden record is better listening than most gold albums



    compiled by carl sagan



    NASA Voyager Golden Record (Flash/HTML) Site



    lots of interesting info and samples... fun for kids too.




    It had a really good beat that I could dance to. I give it an 85.
  • Reply 17 of 51
    jcjc Posts: 342member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by GardenOfEarthlyDelights

    Are you sure he didn't mean Apple ][ instead? Maybe it's running the feared 6502?...)



    Yes, he said that the processor was the same one as the curent apple power macintosh computers
  • Reply 18 of 51
    serranoserrano Posts: 1,806member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by JC

    Yes, but GPS is new. Our current weapons are tomorrows technology and the processors are current.



    I am not guessing. This is what the weapons expert said on the talk radio show that I heard.



    I am not saying that all of our weapons are this advanced. But, the cruise missles are.



    The experts to be suspected that a war was coming for quite awhile. The surgical bombing that is happening in bagdad could not happen the way that it has with 10 or 12 year old technology.



    It is pretty much accepted now that macs are more reliable than PCs (even among PC users). Why wouldn't the militarry use the best processors?



    Why is this so hard to believe??




    Because it's, oh, retarded.



    GPS is new, eh? It's a decades old system that's been in development since the 70's.



    OK. WTF do Mac/PC reliability have to do with an embedded processor in a proprietary system? Secondly, the G4 is expensive, is not designed to remain dormant for long periods of time, and is definitely not neccessary for GPS navigation. Such navigation is handled by dedicated GPS controllers...



    **** ME.



    Ok, while researching why this is such a retarded idea, I stumbled upon the truth...



    Quote:

    For example, the Boeing JDAM mission computer, as shown in Table

    4.1, was originally intended to come from a commercial source.

    Eventually, however, Boeing designed its own mission computer and

    selected Unisys (now Lockheed Martin Tactical Defense Systems) to

    manufacture that computer on a military production line. Boeing?s

    dedicated military mission computer is programmed using the Ada

    language, which is uncommon in the commercial world.

    Nonetheless, the mission computer?s architecture is similar to that of

    desktop computers. At its heart is a Motorola microprocessor similar

    to the one that, prior to the JDAM program, was used by Apple

    Computer as the basis for its Performa 470 series of personal

    computers. Boeing hopes to upgrade this chip with one similar to

    that used in the PowerPC or iMac.



    It doesn't use it for GPS, GPS is handled by a seperate non-commercial unit in Boeing products, and therefore, the Cruise Missile.



    A Motorola proc ties it all together, and very well could be a modified G3 or G4.



    Here's a link to the pdf article.
  • Reply 19 of 51
    stoostoo Posts: 1,490member
    I'd suspect that a generation X PowerPC was mentioned, and it gets equated to Motorola's 74xx series. The PowerPC family has a much larger scope that desktop CPUs.
  • Reply 20 of 51
    alcimedesalcimedes Posts: 5,486member
    so there's a kernal of truth to the story after all, just that the processor isn't quite where we expected it to be.



    interesting.
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