alt Hacker NewsWhen you think about it, 24 years is not such a long time for a machine to keep doing what it's supposed to be doing. It says something about our profession that we find a 24-year service life surprising.
There are airliners that have been in service for over 50 years.
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That may well be the case, but such a long period still seems extraordinary
It's not so much surprising that the machine hasn't broken, but that someone apparently considered it worthwhile to keep it around, having about the compute of a throwaway vape.
I think it just speaks to how quickly the tech has developed. Airliners work more or less the same as they did 50 years ago, computers are vastly different (and vastly more powerful).
Airliners are up against physical limitations that don't incentivize upgrading. If there was an airliner that could fit millions of people and cost less than the 1980s version, I don't think you'd see many 80s aircraft around anymore, except in niece applications such as this computer. Perhaps now that we're at the end of Moore's law, you might see a larger amount of long-lived computers. But on the other hand, we'll probably find new ways to innovate in computing power.
yabut... airliners require constant maintenance and periodic rebuilds.