Today, in addition to our lecture from Dr. Chen, about Web services, we had a guest lecturer talking about real-time embedded computing applications. This was fascinating. Dr. Yann Lee talked about putting hardware and software into common devices, and what the implications are for technology and for society.
We talked about systems from Mars Pathfinder to jumbo jets to cars all the way down to toothbrushes, all of which contain embedded processors and software. The question is: how good is good enough? What kind of reliability is needed and how is it tested? It turns out the answers are not obvious. As an example, Dr. Lee asked which was more important to be reliable, the software in a commercial jetliner, or the software in your car? Most people would say it would be more important in the jet, but it turns out that the pilot is able to fly the jet even if the system fails. If a system fails in your car, say your Anti-Lock Braking System, you may not be able to recover.
We connected this to the Service Oriented Computing by exploring the aspect of individual configurations. For example, in a home, there may be a security system or a spa, or diiferent appliances, etc. There is no way to make a one-size-fits-all solution, so the highly configurable model of Service-Oriented Computing makes sense to enable the user to customize exactly what he needs for his own application.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Paul, this was a very interesting summary. Thanks
Post a Comment