Hardware/doc preservatoion, was Re: rarest computers.

[Steven N. Hirsch]

On Thu, 5 Aug 2004, Paul Koning wrote:

> >>>>> "Steven" == Steven N Hirsch <shirsch at adelphia.net> writes:
> 
>  Steven> On Wed, 4 Aug 2004, ben franchuk wrote:
>  >> PS. Years ago in BYTE ( early 1990's? ) they had spoke up of a CPU
>  >> designed for reliable operation for real time control of things
>  >> like power plants or subways or aircraft. They claimed it was so
>  >> simple that programs could be proven to be bug free. I was
>  >> wondering if they manufactured or sold any the devices.
> 
>  Steven> That would be the British "Viper" CPU.  Computational theory
>  Steven> suggests (proves, perhaps? - it's been a few years) that use
>  Steven> of hardware or software stacks renders behavior
>  Steven> indeterminate.  
> 
> Baloney.  Anyone who has paid any attention to Dijkstra knows that
> such a statement would have to be complete and utter nonsense.

<shrug>  I'm only going by what I recall from the Byte article. Let's not 
start a religous war, please?