Semiconductor Lifeline Keeps Fighter Jets in the Air

https://spectrum.ieee.org/phoenix-semiconductors-legacychips-oems

by rbanffy • 1 month ago

79 23 1 month ago

spectrum.ieee.org

bear8642• 1 month ago

"[Phoenix] repackages off-the-shelf semiconductors into devices that are virtually identical to the phased-out chips."

I'm slightly surprised that _virtually_ identical chips are allowed. I expected truly identical chips to be required…

RossBencina2• 1 month ago

I guess it depends on your definition of "allowed" vs "required". I believe that in commercial aerospace applications a device change (e.g. change of manufacturing process or process parameters, let alone different masks) would require the entire assembly to be recertified. That's why Boeing procures all spares for the product lifetime up front.

dylan604• 1 month ago

At some point, I'd assume that beggars can't be choosers. If the new chip works and does not introduce issues while still allowing the plane to continue to fly, I'm guessing they'll take the plane still flying.

egl2020• 1 month ago

Nothing new under the sun: Strobe Data did this decades years ago for things like PDP-11s (http://www.strobedata.com/home/pioneer10.html) and DG Novas.

fmajid• 1 month ago

It's surprising the DoD didn't require stockpiles of spares for every electronic component in these phenomenally expensive and long-lived weapon systems. This is after all the one arm of the Federal Government that is both good at logistics and planning, and was able to deliver frozen ice cream and other amenities to the most remote Forward Operating Bases in Afghanistan.

chiph• 1 month ago

They generally do stock parts. I was able to order a part when I was in the USAF for a near-obsolete machine (which still used core memory!) and it showed up within a week. Still in it's original EMP and environmental-proof packaging from the late 1960's.

Aircraft can get their service life extended a couple of times before they're parked for good (the B-52 is an extreme example). And the supply system eventually runs out. First of replaceable modules, then the boards, and now the chips.

iberator• 1 month ago

I'm sure they do. They also require double sourcing of components: 2 separate companies at once

jauntywundrkind• 1 month ago

I want to know when Apple sold their last PA Semi PWRficient core to the DoD. https://www.eetimes.com/apple-agrees-to-support-p-a-semi-pro...

Man that was such a crushing loss, one of so so so many incredible companies being gobbled up, to steal their value add from the world, to be added to the legion of supplicated talent at the titan's feets.

This industry would be so much healthier, we'd have so much less of all this bullshit, this fuckery, if immortal ultra wealthy companies weren't allowed to forever keep eating their fucking young until there's no one left.

ungreased0675• 1 month ago

Agreed. There should be phenomenally high taxes on acquisitions of small companies by huge ones.

CaliforniaKarl• 1 month ago

This makes me think of Jazz Semiconductor in Newport Beach. I think they’re Tower Semiconductor now, but I believe they’re still there, a small fab in SoCal that I assume is making obscure, important stuff.

Melatonic• 1 month ago

Don't they make a ton of stuff including camera sensors ?

osnium123• 1 month ago

Skywater was working a foundry for similar markets.

ggm• 1 month ago

Turtles all the way down and up: Vehicle makers sourcing plug-compatible devices which emulate floppy drives for updating tank s/w, Airlines sourcing print and terminals emulating IBM mainframe era dependencies for gate check processes.

Talking of mainframes, many core bank registry functions are emulations of prior systems long embedded into architectures now themselves superseded. Support for tech archaisms has long roots.

RossBencina2• 1 month ago

IBM mainframes were for a very long time built and sold on the premise of providing reliable emulation of previous generations weren't they.

phire• 1 month ago

Still are.

The latest IBM z/Architecture mainframe (released in 2024) will natively run binaries compiled for the original IBM System/360, released 62 years ago.

The original architecture has been expanded to 64 bits and can (or should) run linux with older code in virtualization.

However, those mainframes are extremely high performance, high reliably, and high cost. Complete overkill for many companies, who can get away with much simpler/cheaper emulations of the System/360 from 3rd parties, or source code ports to more modern architectures.

bitwize2• 1 month ago

There's also like one company still manufacturing CRTs, and their market is exclusively military and heavy-industrial, replacements for old fighter-jet HUDs and the like:

https://www.thomaselectronics.com/avionics/head-up-display/

I'm sure there's at least one wealthy Smash Bros. enthusiast willing to pay their asking price and hook up one of their HUDs to a Gamecube to play Melee though.

fc417fc802• 1 month ago

I was under the impression that you could purchase cheap newly manufactured CRTs on alibaba. I only know this because someone published an unrelated project that repurposed the electron gun and associated internals.

aimattb• 1 month ago

Go get them. If you look heard enough you may find stock piles of these chips in warehouse somewhere that someone bought off an auction. maybe not on ebay:) but these days you never know.

CobaltFire• 1 month ago

This is actually a topic I have deep experience with.

I wrote both test bench and aircraft code to replace an F/A-18 (C/D) chip in the RPYC (Roll Pitch Yaw Computer) due to the original being NLA. If I recall correctly (this was a couple decades ago now) the new chip was NEARLY a drop in but had a slightly different rise/fall curve and a couple of ns faster response. It was the closest I could find but required software updates to both the aircraft and the test bench to not be an issue.

So yeah, this has been an issue for decades. I'm personally glad to see a company addressing that market.

Semiconductor Lifeline Keeps Fighter Jets in the Air

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